Algorithmic market-making across NSE asset classes.
Shabba is building a Kenyan market-making operation across the asset classes the Nairobi Securities Exchange supports: cash equities on NSE and derivatives on NSE NEXT. We engage each product class on its own licensing pathway with NSE and CMA Kenya.
A derivatives market at an inflection.
NSE NEXT (the derivatives segment of the Nairobi Securities Exchange) launched in 2019 with Single Stock Futures on a handful of NSE 20 names. In early 2026 it printed record turnover and counterparty growth, the clearest signal yet that institutional appetite for listed derivatives in East Africa is real.
The next chapter is Options on Single Stock Futures. CMA Kenya has greenlit the product set; NSE Clear has the margining methodology in place. What the market still doesn’t have is an algorithmic market maker for the options book.
The SSF book on NSE NEXT has a designated market maker in place today. Options are a different problem: a vol surface, full Greeks lifecycle, hedging across the futures leg. The infrastructure to do this well doesn’t exist anywhere in East Africa today. Building it is what we’re here for.
Pricing infrastructure for a real options book.
Black-76 pricing
Options on Single Stock Futures are priced under the Black-76 model, the right framework for futures-style options. Not Black-Scholes adapted post-hoc.
SVI vol surface
Stochastic Volatility Inspired parameterization with online SGD calibration. Stable across sparse strikes, no-arbitrage by construction.
Greeks lifecycle
Delta, gamma, vega, theta, rho, managed continuously across the book. Risk limits applied per underlying, per expiry, per Greek.
Online learning
Hierarchical River models for regime detection in thin markets. The system updates with every tick rather than relying on batch retraining.
Options and futures. Both first-class asset classes.
The OSF book is the near-term licensing path, since no algorithmic options market maker is appointed there today. Single Stock Futures sit alongside as a first-class derivative product in our operating model, priced, risk-managed, and quoted continuously under the same standard. As the venue’s market-maker programme evolves, the SSF book is an asset class we are positioned to deepen our role in.
Working through the licensing pathway, in the open.
Shabba is engaged with the Nairobi Securities Exchange and the Capital Markets Authority of Kenya on the licensing pathway for Options on Single Stock Futures. Membership, market-maker authorization, and connectivity arrangements are progressing in parallel.
Operations on NSE NEXT pending regulatory authorization. Engagement underway with NSE and CMA Kenya. This page describes the operating model we are building toward, not active trading activity.