First company to make high-quality historical options datasets available to quants and researchers 25 years ago continues to pioneer in global financial data across equities, futures, ETFs, dividend forecasting.

OptionMetrics, the first company to compile and license clean, accurate, easy-to-use historical end-of-day data on U.S. exchange-traded equity and index options from January 1996 onward, turns 25 this month. Since its founding, OptionMetrics has been the leading provider of options analytics data, including prices, implied volatilities (IVs), and greeks. Building upon its heritage data sets and capabilities, the company has introduced over the last 25 years a number of products and solutions that deliver empirical insights across an array of global securities and financial markets.

Founded by David Hait, Ph.D. in 1999, in the midst of the introduction of the Euro, potential Y2K market destabilization, and nascency of options investment strategies, OptionMetrics quietly became the leading provider of research-grade options and implied volatility data. Hedge funds, investment portfolios and top business schools worldwide leveraged the company’s high-quality data, and options went from a niche market practice to a more standard investment strategy with volatility and VIX today regularly cited by institutional and retail investors alike. By 2023, global options and futures open interest reached a record 1.25 billion contracts, according to Futures Industry Association.

Since securing its reputation as the gold-standard in high-quality historical options data in the U.S. and then Europe, Canada, and Asia markets, OptionMetrics has steadily developed premium options data and analytics products for commodities and futures, equities, ETFs, implied beta, buyer/seller trading volume, and dividend forecasting.

Today, from its headquarters in New York City (at its new expanded offices at 1700 Broadway) and offices in Miami and London, the OptionMetrics team of product developers, quants, analysts, and customer support professionals serves 350+ corporate and academic institutions across the globe. The company’s financial databases are used by leading portfolio managers, traders, quantitative researchers, and risk managers to construct and test investment strategies, perform empirical research, seek alpha, and assess risk with increased precision. OptionMetrics’ data has been used in over a thousand papers on Social Science Research Network to analyze everything from trading strategies and cybersecurity, to insider trading and short selling, to the impact of extreme weather and climate change on markets, and more.

“A tremendous amount of information on markets, equities, and ETFs can be gleaned from options data. Over our 25 years, we’ve continually innovated to leverage that rich data to help our customers address opportunities presented by expanding exchanges worldwide, ODTE options, meme stocks, the surge in futures, and the recent rise in ETFs,” says OptionMetrics CEO David Hait, Ph.D. “Founded on a mission of developing research-grade options data and analytics, we remain committed to empowering institutional investors and academics to more accurately assess risk, sharpen calculations, and craft competitive investment strategies. Now that we are part of the Leeds Equity Partners family, we feel we’ve just scratched the surface on developing new data products and services.”

Leeds Equity Partners’ investment in OptionMetrics in April 2021 continued the private equity firm’s track record of partnering with leading financial data and information services platforms. “Our due diligence afforded a great appreciation for OptionMetrics’ ability to deliver compelling trade analysis, risk assessment, and high-integrity data necessary to drive empirical research for global investor and academic research communities,” said David Neverson, Managing Director at Leeds Equity Partners. “On behalf of Leeds Equity Partners, I’d like to congratulate OptionMetrics on a highly successful 25 years. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed our partnership with the OptionMetrics team and are excited to continue our collective work in building upon the company’s legacy of innovation and data excellence.”

OptionMetrics products include:

• IvyDB US, considered the “gold standard” in historical options data, as well as IvyDB Europe, IvyDB Canada, IvyDB Asia, and IvyDB ETF to assess financial strategies in markets worldwide
• IvyDB Beta, option implied betas and correlations for constituents of the SPY for a real-time market adjusted view of systematic risk over traditional historical, backward-looking beta
• IvyDB Futures, historical future option price data and volatility surface calculations of the highest quality for the US futures markets, to evaluate risk and test trading strategies
• IvyDB Signed Volume, data on detailed option trading volume, assigned as buyer-initiated or seller-initiated, for insights into options market order flows, participant activity, and directional trading strategies
• Real-time Dividend Forecast Data with GenAI with algorithm+analyst+ai methodology for trading, back-testing dividend strategies, risk management and anticipating portfolio income. A result of OptionMetrics’ acquisition of Woodseer Global and its suite of products.

About OptionMetrics

With 25 years as the premier provider of historical options and implied volatility data, OptionMetrics distributes its options, futures, beta, and dividend forecast databases to leading portfolio managers, traders, and quantitative researchers at 350+ corporate and academic institutions worldwide to construct and test investment strategies, perform empirical research, and assess risk. www.optionmetrics.com, LinkedIn, Twitter

About Leeds Equity Partners

Leeds Equity is a New York-based private equity firm dedicated exclusively to partnering with management teams in the education, training, and information services industries (the "Knowledge Industries"). The firm was founded in 1993 and currently manages approximately $5 billion of capital across a broad spectrum of companies within the Knowledge Industries. Leeds Equity seeks to leverage its sector-focused expertise and market insights to create long-term value for its partner companies and investors.

For additional information on Leeds Equity Partners, see http://www.leedsequity.com/

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