London-listed broker IG Group has stopped offering listed futures and options products to customers in the UK.
The change appears to have gone into play earlier this month, with the ability to add futures and options products no longer possible in the onboarding process.
Existing customers also no longer have the option to add the products from within their accounts.
IG’s dashboard lists all of its products in one place, with traders able to pick and add any different products they want.
As you can see below, there is no longer a futures and options product listed.
IG launched listed futures and options just over 12 months ago via an integration with tastytrade, a US subsidiary of the brokerage group which the firm acquired in 2021.
Other brokers have looked to add the product since then but have done so on an OTC basis.
For example, CMC Markets, Spreadex, and Plus500 have all improved their options CFD products in the last couple of years.
Traders have the ability to trade these with margin, something that you can’t usually do if you buy the cash product.
Brokers are also likely to benefit as a lot of options trading is in index products with two way flow. Cboe research on options markets published last year shows most of this flow gets netted off by market makers and it’s hard not to think a similar process would happen if you were offering the product OTC.
