According to Mike Ross, partner, vice president, sales and marketing at TABB Group, "The financial markets are experiencing the highest levels of volatility that we've seen in years at the same time the industry's seen resurgent inflation across the global economy. Combined with recent, high-profile losses at many of the largest, most sophisticated financial institutions, plus the complete unwinding of a major bulge-bracket firm - this, in tandem with the explosive growth in the use of derivatives, has made it clear that our global client base is crying out for help in the derivatives space."

TABB Derivatives Service, the first of its kind worldwide, follows the financial markets' embrace of the TABB Equities Service, launched in 2003 with annual interview-based studies on global institutional equity trading, hedge funds and traditional institutional asset management, all of which have been recognized as industry benchmarks. "Firms shape their trading strategies based on the depth and accuracy of our intellectual capital," says Ross. TABB's unique research methodology of "first-person knowledge" developed by founder and CEO Larry Tabb is the foundation for the published research at the firm. Ross adds that the TABB Group will bring the same depth and access to the rapidly evolving world of exchange-traded and OTC derivatives as they have with cash equities.

"Without direct access to the right information at the right time to point your trading operation in the right direction, firms run the risk of placing their portfolios and returns in jeopardy," says Ross. "At TABB Group, we believe that the right information means having access to the right people, the concept behind 'first-person knowledge.' Every day TABB analysts conduct peer-level conversations with CEOs, CTOs, CIOs and head traders. These interactions combined with their industry and research expertise allows them to fully understand how the regulatory, behavioral and structural changes occurring in tring in today's derivatives market will impact and shape its future."

TABB Group's "Research Alliance" with its derivatives clients will be led by Andy Nybo and Kevin McPartland. Currently, the TABB Derivatives Service has published "Equity Options Trading 2008: Rising Out of Obscurity," a 56-page interview-based study authored by Nybo and McPartland, the second such annual survey and one of four benchmark studies to be published annually specifically for TABB Derivatives Service clients.