SuperDerivatives
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Financial services |
| Founded | 2000 |
| Founder | Dr. David Gershon |
| Defunct | 2014 |
| Fate | Acquired by Intercontinental Exchange |
| Headquarters | United States |
Key people | Dr. David Gershon (Founder), Dr. Yuval Levy (CTO) |
| Products | Real-time options pricing solutions, SDX derivatives platform, DCX multi-bank FX options trading system, DGX data platform |
SuperDerivatives (operating from 1999 to 2014) was a United States-based financial services firm recognized for developing the pioneering professional real-time options pricing solution accessible via the internet. Its pricing outputs closely mirrored interbank broker market quotations, fostering greater transparency and fueling substantial expansion in over-the-counter (OTC) options markets. In 2014, the company was acquired by Intercontinental Exchange.
Company
Established in 2000 by Dr. David Gershon, who previously served as the global head of exotic derivatives at Barclays Capital, SuperDerivatives set out to enhance transparency in options valuation through Gershon’s proprietary model that aligned precisely with interbank broker market prices. At that period, only major banking institutions had access to such pricing data, and no alternative model offered comparable accuracy.
To promote openness in the marketplace, Gershon opted to deliver the pricing platform through the internet—a groundbreaking method at that time. Dr. Yuval Levy, serving as CTO from London, directed the technology and product development efforts from the company’s inception until its acquisition. By 2001, SuperDerivatives introduced the first internet-based real-time options pricing tool. Within two years, it was widely adopted by leading global banks engaged in options trading and became known as the industry standard for options valuation.
The internet-based delivery model facilitated expansion of options markets across various countries including China, Indonesia, Turkey, Morocco, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland, and Russia among others. The platform’s user base comprised banks, hedge funds, corporations, brokers, central banks, and auditors. By enabling new participants to actively engage as market makers and takers in both Vanilla and Exotic options, SuperDerivatives played a key role in narrowing bid-ask spreads while increasing liquidity and trading volume. Over a five-year span, it transformed the options market into a sophisticated environment tailored for professional derivatives practitioners.
In 2003, JPMorgan-Chase implemented the SuperDerivatives pricing system across its currency trading divisions. The following year, 2004, saw the company begin publishing implied volatility metrics derived from OTC markets alongside launching an independent portfolio valuation service that provided continuous mark-to-market assessments around the clock.
On October 10, 2010, SuperDerivatives unveiled SDX—a comprehensive cross-asset derivatives platform for pricing, structuring, and pre-trade analytics that integrated technologies covering currency, interest rates, equities, commodities, energy, and credit derivatives developed since 2005. In 2011, a collaboration with FXCM resulted in DCX: a multi-bank trading system dedicated to FX options. Subsequently on December 12, 2012, SuperDerivatives introduced DGX—a free-text data platform featuring self-configuration functionality.
Mergers and acquisitions
In September 2014, Intercontinental Exchange announced its intention to acquire SuperDerivatives for roughly $350 million in an all-cash deal aimed at accelerating ICE’s strategy for multi-asset class clearing services. Following regulatory approvals, the acquisition was finalized on October 7, 2014.