A brokerage powerhouse is set to acquire an online brokerage company that specializes in options and futures trades. As the exchange traded fund (ETF) industry grows, more products that utilize options strategies will become available to the public.
The Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE: SCHW) will acquire optionsXpress Holdings (NasdaqGS: OXPS) at 1.02 shares of Schwab stock for each share of optionsXpress stock at an estimated value of around $1.0 billion, writes Neil Anderson for The Mutual Fund Wire. optionsXpress is a retail online brokerage service focused on equity options and futures. [How to Trade Options With ETFs.]
Walt Bettinger, Schwab President and Chief Executive Officer, stated that “the combination of optionsXpress and Schwab will offer active investors an unparalleled level of service and platform capabilities. optionsXpress’ industry-leading and award-winning client tools will be well received by our existing active investor clients who are increasingly using options and other trading strategies as a key part of their total approach to investing.”
James Gray, Founder and Chairman of the Board of optionsXpress, remarked that optionsXpress was launched in 2001 “with the vision of making options and futures trading more accessible for self-directed retail investors.”
Schwab is an ETF provider that has its own line of U.S. domestic and international themed ETFs.
For more information on the options strategy in ETFs, visit our options category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.
The opinions and forecasts expressed herein are solely those of Tom Lydon, and may not actually come to pass. Information on this site should not be used or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any product.