Interactive Data Introduces Options Volatility Service

WESTON, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Interactive Data Corporation (NYSE: IDC), a leading provider of financial market data, analytics and related solutions, today announced that its Pricing and Reference Data business introduced the Options Volatility Service^SM, a new offering that delivers a relational database of end-of-day implied volatilities, options risk parameters and volatility surfaces across the U.S. options market to help clients assess risk.

The Options Volatility Service is an easy-to-use offering that leverages Interactive Data’s extensive options delivery capabilities. The service will deliver daily closing implied volatilities for more than 6,000 U.S. companies with listed options during the past 10 years. It also will provide end-of-day pricing, splits and other corporate actions, along with U.S. options analytics information, including risk parameters and sensitivity gauges calculated by Hanweck Associates, LLC. Hanweck specializes in trading, risk management and investment systems and strategies for financial institutions.

Traders, quantitative specialists, hedge fund managers, risk officers, as well as software application and risk management vendors, can utilize this service to assess the risks associated with market volatility. The service can help them to create consistent risk reports across varied positions, analyze specific positions more thoroughly, evaluate debt versus equity positions, conduct research (including back-testing trading strategies) and price their variable annuities.

“Many investors are currently seeking to capitalize on the current market volatility by buying and selling options based on expected market fluctuation,” said Robin Simpson, managing director of Reference Data for Interactive Data. “With the launch of the Options Volatility Service, we will be able to provide timely and critical information to help clients assess risk exposure and make informed decisions. This new offering will help to further expand Interactive Data’s services to meet the needs of middle and front office clients by assisting them with managing the underlying data that powers their risk management applications.”

Interactive Data is working with Hanweck to develop the Options Volatility Service, which combines Interactive Data’s extensive pricing and reference data, including corporate actions, for millions of financial instruments and Hanweck’s sophisticated analytics capabilities.

“The extreme volatility in financial markets these days redoubles the need for thorough quantitative analysis and risk management of options portfolios,” said Gerald Hanweck, Jr., PhD, founder and principal partner of Hanweck Associates. “Interactive Data’s depth of coverage and high-quality data, coupled with our industry experience and quantitative expertise, can help risk management professionals measure and control the effects of market volatility on their options positions.”

The Options Volatility Service will support a wide range of database environments such as Microsoft SQL Server®, Oracle® and MySQL®. Clients will also be able to access the database with their own research tools and connect to proprietary applications. The service is designed to support access to millions of data points for implied volatilities and risk measures. It is expected to be available before the end of the second quarter of 2009.

About Interactive Data Corporation

Interactive Data Corporation (NYSE: IDC) is a leading global provider of financial market data, analytics and related solutions to financial institutions, active traders and individual investors. The Company's businesses supply real-time market data, time-sensitive pricing, evaluations and reference data for millions of securities traded around the world, including hard-to-value instruments. Many of the world's best-known financial service and software companies subscribe to the Company's services in support of their trading, analysis, portfolio management and valuation activities. Interactive Data, headquartered in Bedford, Mass., has approximately 2,400 employees in offices located throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Pearson plc (NYSE: PSO; LSE: PSON), an international media company, whose businesses include the Financial Times Group, Pearson Education, and the Penguin Group, is Interactive Data Corporation's majority stockholder.

Interactive Data’s Pricing and Reference Data business provides global securities pricing, evaluations and reference data designed to support financial institutions’ and investment funds' pricing activities, securities operations, research and portfolio management. Interactive Data collects, edits, maintains and delivers data on more than 6 million securities, including daily evaluations for approximately 2.8 million fixed income and international equity issues. Interactive Data specializes in ‘hard-to-get’ information and evaluates many ‘hard-to value’ instruments.

Pricing, evaluations and reference data are provided in the U.S. through Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data, Inc. and internationally through Interactive Data (Europe) Ltd. and Interactive Data (Australia) Pty Ltd.

For more information about Interactive Data Corporation and its businesses, please visit www.interactivedata.com

Interactive Data^SM and the Interactive Data logo are service marks of Interactive Data Corporation. The Options Volatility Service^SM is a service mark of Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data.

About Hanweck Associates

Hanweck Associates, LLC, is a premier financial services provider specializing in risk management solutions for top-tier hedge funds, banks, broker/dealers and other financial institutions. Hanweck Associates pioneered commercial GPU-based computing solutions for the financial industry with products such as Volera™, its low-latency, real-time options analytics engine, and is an established leader in high-performance financial computing. The Company’s seasoned traders, strategists, mathematicians and developers combine decades of hands-on markets experience with cutting-edge technology to solve today’s complex quantitative problems. For more information please visit www.hanweckassoc.com.