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# iSAM Uses ClickHouse Cloud for Options Research Platform
- URL: https://www.stirup.si/isam-uses-clickhouse-cloud-for-options-research-platform-3e2ed8c4/
- Published: 2026-10-13T12:02:13.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-13T12:02:13.000Z
- Description: iSAM’s Options Desk relies on ClickHouse Cloud to manage extensive options research data, streamline complexity, and accelerate hypothesis testing and analysis.
- Author: Satish Das
- Tags: Data, News, Stirup Research

## iSAM's Options Desk and the Role of ClickHouse Cloud

iSAM’s Options Desk relies heavily on ClickHouse Cloud to manage its extensive options research platform. As Steve Barham, iSAM’s Head of Options Development, explains, data is central to their architecture, shaping how they store, process, and extract insights from information. The Options Desk was established about three years ago with the goal of integrating cross-asset options capabilities into the firm. One of the primary technical challenges Steve’s team faces involves reference data—specifically, determining which options exist for a given underlying asset and identifying the underlying set for a particular market. ClickHouse Cloud on AWS plays a crucial role in helping the team manage vast amounts of data, streamline complexity, and accelerate the process from hypothesis generation to testing. This infrastructure enables researchers to interactively access full options history, supporting more efficient and insightful analysis.

## Technical Challenges and the Shift to ClickHouse Cloud

As iSAM Funds expanded its ambitions in options research, the team faced significant technical challenges in managing the vast scale of data required for their operations. Steve Barham, Head of Options Development, noted that the need for a fundamental change in data persistence became clear as the breadth and depth of data grew. Other teams within iSAM had already been experimenting with ClickHouse, and the positive results prompted Barham to pursue a trial. The iSAM Options desk relies heavily on Apache Arrow for internal data infrastructure, but Barham emphasized the need for a managed solution to avoid spending innovation resources on on-premises ClickHouse deployment and failover configurations. ClickHouse Cloud provided the necessary managed service, integrating with iSAM’s enterprise authentication stack, a core requirement for the platform. Barham highlighted the ease of use, stating, “If I want to stick a chart on a page with a year’s worth of bar data, that’s fine, I just run that query.”

## Performance and Scalability with ClickHouse Cloud

Performance and scalability were critical for iSAM Funds as it expanded its options research platform to handle a 10,000x increase in data volume. According to Steve Barham, Head of Options Development at iSAM, ClickHouse has been really, really helpful for that. The platform’s ability to maintain full historical data online and queryable has reduced the need for complex pre-aggregation pipelines, allowing researchers to rapidly test new ideas across the full universe of data. As the desk expanded from futures to FX to equity options over three years, the data volume multiplied significantly. ClickHouse Cloud provided the necessary headroom to scale with this growth, ensuring that performance remained consistent even as the underlying data expanded. This scalability has been essential in maintaining a competitive edge, as noted by Barham, who emphasized that If we didn’t have that, we wouldn’t be a competitive business. The system’s design keeps complexity out of the web front end, streamlining the research process.

## Sources and reporting notes

- [ClickHouse](https://clickhouse.com/blog/isam-market-data-research-platform?ref=stirup.si)

Based on published source material. No independent hands-on testing is claimed.