Charles Schwab Corp (SCHW.N) will buy optionsXpress Holdings Inc (OXPS.O), a smaller retail brokerage, in a $1 billion deal aimed at helping Schwab take advantage of investors' stronger embrace of options. The all-stock deal, announced by both companies on Monday, is a nod to the increased comfort felt by individual retail traders using options contracts to speculate and hedge, and could help Schwab hang on to the most active and shrewd of its clients. U.S. options trading volume has grown strongly in recent years, part of the reason Schwab's chief rival, TD Ameritrade Holding Corp (AMTD.O), bought options specialist thinkorswim in 2009.
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