SCALP Trade

SCALP Trade hides a family in its name: the letters come from the initials of founder Stanley Awdisho, his wife, and their three children. He started the Chicago firm in 2009 around an options book, then widened it to cover virtually every class of exchange-traded product.

It trades firm capital in equities, equity options, and futures, aiming to tighten spreads and add liquidity rather than run a retail funded-account program. Sitting in Chicago's financial district near the CME and CBOE, it shares alumni traffic with IMC, PEAK6, and BMO, the markers of a Chicago options and market-making lineage.