Fidelity Capital Markets is expanding its horizons— both overseas and by adding to its product line. The broker-dealer is in the initial stages of rolling out domestic equity options and international equity trading capabilities to its customers, says Jeff Brown, senior vice president, Fidelity Capital Markets Services. He explains that the firm has the technology in place for equities, which can be leveraged for other products as well as to broaden the firm's reach to other countries.

"If your technology is architected properly, the servers and the software are somewhat indifferent to the underlying asset classes they are handling; and as the regulatory regime and technology platforms converge, specifically in options, it becomes easier to extend these technologies to other asset classes," adds Brown.

Fidelity is in the initial phases of connecting to options exchanges domestically and international equities exchanges. "The technology is in production, it's a matter of actually extending it to clients," he notes. "It will be rolled out in the very short term," he adds.

After the initial connectivity to exchanges is complete, Fidelity will look to bring all aspects of its product suite, including ATS functionality, algorithms and routing to both international equity trading and domestic options trading. This second phase is a project for 2009 and beyond, he notes. There is also a plan to offer international options trading in the future. Brown would not comment further on the details, as the firm's plans had not yet been announced.

Many other firms are planning to expand internationally and in the options space due to the growth potential within these segments. Rosenblatt Securities is another firm that is planning to offer options trading to its clients by the end of the year, and this year, has rolled out international trading services.