What Order Identifiers Market Makers Can See in Options Trading
Summary
The document distinguishes exchange liquidity provision and retail broker execution from agency trading performed for a named client. It explains that identifiers in options FIX messages, including fields such as ClientID and CustomGroupID, support tracking when a market maker executes an order on behalf of a specific institutional client.
The answer says market makers providing liquidity on an exchange or executing retail broker orders do not receive client information. It does not detail the visibility of each FIX field at every stage, including the clearing process, or establish how all broker payment arrangements handle customer data. The explanation is therefore a general distinction between agency and customer flow, rather than a complete technical account of field exposure.
Key ideas
- FIX fields can carry identifiers used to track client orders in agency executions.
- Market makers handling retail broker orders or providing exchange liquidity generally do not receive customer identity information.
- Whether a specific identifier is visible depends on the trading context and is not fully specified here.
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Full text
# If a market maker wanted to avoid filling option orders from a specific account, what information could they use? # If a market maker wanted to avoid filling option orders from a specific account, what information could they use? FIX has a few fields that do or could contain identifying information for equity option orders, the “Actionable Identifier” field in particular, although the OCC states here that “It will not be visible to the contra party to the trade or any other party.“ Is that true that this field is hidden except during the clearing process? Or can market makers with a pfof arrangement with a broker see a customer’s identifiable information before it is routed to an exchange? There are additional fields in the CBOE FIX spec that could contain identifying info, such as ClientID, CustomGroupID, or AdditionalCientInfo. Are fields like these exposed in the order book? ## Answer by pyCthon (score 1) https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/74833 As you noted, when a market market provides liquidity on a particular exchange or executes orders for a retail broker they would not receive any client information. These fields are relevant when a market market executes an order on behalf of a particular client (agency trading) e.x. a large asset management firm chooses to have it's option orders executed by a market maker to save trading costs. This ensures the proper tracking of orders.
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