OptionMetrics today announced that the company’s IvyDB Historical Option Database product has been selected by Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., as its source for historical option pricing data. The agreement gives Bear Stearns, a leading investment banking, securities and brokerage firm, access to more than six years of high-quality U.S. equity and index option price and implied volatility data to support its options research, sales, and trading areas.

“Bear Stearns depends on resources that are a ‘cut above’ in order to provide our clients with superior services,” said Kevin Robik, senior managing director at Bear Stearns. “IvyDB is an excellent product that fits well with our strategy. We look forward to using the quality data it offers.”

IvyDB is the first widely available, comprehensive source of high-quality historical price and implied volatility data for the US equity and index options markets. It contains accurate historical prices – dating back to January 1996 – of options and their associated underlying instruments, correctly calculated implied volatilities, and option sensitivities. Customers, who include broker/dealers, hedge funds, and proprietary trading firms, can use the product to back-test trading strategies, evaluate risk/return models, and perform sophisticated research on all aspects of options investment.

“We’re very pleased to sign a firm of the magnitude of Bear Stearns,” said David J. Hait, President of OptionMetrics.

“It underscores the quality of our data base, which has been painstakingly researched and compiled to ensure that IvyDB is the most complete and accurate source of historical option prices and implied volatilities available anywhere.”

OptionMetrics, LLC is a financial research and consulting firm specializing in the econometric analysis of the options markets.

It provides unique solutions to clients in the financial services industry by leveraging its core expertise in the options markets, econometrics, and technology.