Nymex Nails Optionable

Optionable(OPBL) investors just got burned again.

The Valhalla, N.Y.-based electronic options trader plunged for the second day in a row Thursday after a big shareholder said it would compete with Optionable in the commodities trading business.

After dropping 41% Wednesday, Optionable hemorrhaged 50% Thursday to $1.40. Shares traded as high as $8.63 earlier this year.

The latest blow comes from the New York Mercantile Exchange(NMX), which said it plans to electronically trade options and futures in natural gas, crude oil, gold and silver via its CME Globex trading platform.

Nymex has a 19% stake in Optionable, which many observers believed meant that the exchange intended on either buying Optionable at some point or incorporating it into its own array of services. But Nymex's move to launch its own electronic service means that scenario is not likely.

The Nymex service is expected to launch sometime in late June, according to one observer. A call to Nymex was not immediately returned.

Optionable made a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday warning that the new Nymex service could pose a threat to its options exchange, known as Opex.

An external Optionable spokesman declined to comment.

"We believe that some of the contracts trading on the CME Globex platform may compete with contracts trading on the company's Opex platform," the filing says. "The company is unable to quantify the impact of this potential competition on its business, including its future results of operations and financial condition."

Nymex's announcement comes just a day after BMO Financial (BMO) said it has suspended doing business with Optionable. BMO accounted for 30% of Optionable's trading revenues, according to the company's first-quarter earnings report.

How big an impact the one-two BMO/Nymex punch will have on Optionable remains to be seen, but it's not likely to be favorable to the company's nascent business.

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