London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange
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The London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange, known as LIFFE (pronounced 'life' as in 'human life', and never 'liff-eee') is a financial futures market based in London. It is now part of Euronext and is known as Euronext.Liffe.
Critics say that LIFFE had to give up its independence because it failed to embrace technology. A large part of its business (notably in German Treasury Bonds) was poached by the German-Swiss exchange Eurex in the late 1990s. Over a six month period, Liffe's market share in Bund Futures went from 90% to 10% - all because the cost of manual transactions was so much higher than Eurex's electronic transactions. Liffe was bought out in 2002 and became Euronext.Liffe, joining the exchanges of Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris and Lisbon in Euronext. One of its main competitors is the Eurex derivative exchange.
LIFFE is today an all-electronic market and has sold its trading technology to other markets around the world - most notably the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) and the Tokyo Futures Market.
External links
- LIFFE (International Financial Futures and Options Exchange) (http://www.liffe.com/)