OREANDA-NEWS. On February 01, 2013 the Moscow Exchange announced the Clash of the Titans Competition on its Derivatives market. The competition aimed to boost liquidity on the market and improve the quality of the order book for derivatives on the Exchange"s indices. Leading clearing members (brokers) of the futures and options market took part in the competition.

By the end of the competition's first month the average size of a trade in the index derivatives increased by 25% compared to same parameter in the last three months.

Increased participants activity changed the market microstructure that reduced trading costs for all market participants. In particular, the order book density for large orders (of more than 100 lots), i.e. an opportunity to fill orders at best prices, rose by 30%.

"The order book quality has been improved and the number of trades with a size of 100 contracts has more than doubled. The competition participants are just beginning to adapt to new market conditions, but soon we expect more fantasy and firm among participants in choosing volumes. Nonetheless, the turnover generated by large orders in February doubled against the previous months. The MICEX Index futures was at the cutting edge of the struggle, as before the competition start traders of the contract had not even expected such liquidity. In March the next index futures will be included in the competition, and in April we are planning to involve equity contracts. We believe that the Clash of Titans will attract quite a few large brokers", said Roman Sulzhyk, the Managing Director of the Derivatives Market at Moscow Exchange.

"We have seen a significant growth of liquidity in the order book for the RTS Index futures as the Clash of Titans began. Even sharp movements of the underlying asset do not entail excessive change in the futures basis. It means that existing liquidity allows absorbing current demand for it even at moments of increased activity in the market", commented Pavel Vidov, Head of Trading Operations at Financial Company INTRUST

The first stage of the Clash of Titans Competition was completed on February 28, 2013. 34 participants joined the race in its first month with a total trading volume generated by them exceeding RUB74 billion.

The February 2013 winner was Company BCS that was the overall leader and trading leader in the MICEX Index futures.

Applications for the next competition's stage are accepted until 17:00 MSK on March 15, 2013 via the electronic document circulation system or in a hard copy.