Overview
Option Research & Technology Services, LLC, (“ORATS”) is an Illinois limited
liability company founded in 2001. ORATS is wholly-owned by Matthew
Amberson (the “Chief Compliance Officer”).
The majority of ORATS’ business is the sale of research products on a subscription
basis, which includes fundamental research on companies, research on sectors and
industries, and investment strategy and other analytical pieces. Such services are
typically sold via a password protected website on a subscription basis to
institutional investors.
ORATS offers consulting services to institutional asset managers, consisting
primarily of pension funds, investment managers, and insurance companies. Such
services typically relate to customized research projects regarding individual
issuers or sectors, and each such advisory relationship is governed by a separate,
customized agreement. Such agreements do not ever involve trading or authority
over a customer’s account, and accordingly, client restrictions on investing in
certain types of securities are not applicable to ORATS’ business.
Generally, ORATS’ business is limited to using historical options related data to
meet the needs of
its clients. Among other services, ORATS offers backtesting of
options strategies and implementation of strategies using bespoke scanning tools or
programs. Direction for the scope of such research projects is arrived at through
discussion and negotiations between ORATS and the particular client and is then
set forth in a customized advisory agreement or engagement letter. ORATS does
not provide a full range of advisory services, nor does it offer advice with respect
to the appropriateness of trading strategies, or strategies relating to other tradable
instruments (e.g., futures, options), or certain matters that are beyond the scope of
its core focus on historical options data.
At present, ORATS typically may be engaged to provide consulting and evaluative
services on an episodic basis (e.g., a specific research project) or a periodic basis
(e.g., consulting with respect to a client’s portfolio on a quarterly or semi-annual
basis). In such cases, ORATS has no authority (discretionary or non- discretionary)
over any customer’s assets, nor does ORATS have access to any customer accounts
with any institution or any other personally identifiable customer information.