Celebrating 50 Years Of Publicly-Listed Options With Cboe

On April 26th, 1973, Cboe Global Markets CBOE introduced the world to publicly-listed options with strikes and expiration dates. The financial markets were forever changed.  

50 years later, Cboe’s innovation unlocked a new avenue for investing and hedging for hundreds of hedge funds and thousands of traders, and its innovation did not stop there. Cboe is responsible for the creation and perfection of most of the world’s options products. It has produced eight kinds of Index Options, four volatility-derivative products (including the volatility index itself), two corporate credit and interest rate futures and countless other products like Cboe Minis, FLEX Options and LEAP options. 

The innovation expressed through its products is reflected in Cboe’s markets. The first listed options marketplace, the first alternative venue to traditional equity markets and the first electronic communication network (ECN) for the institutional foreign exchange market all belong to Cboe. Since the first publicly-listed options contract in 1973, the options trading community’s growth has been nothing short of spectacular. 

Here are some metrics that reflect the options community’s growth: 

• In 2021, daily total option volume records were set 17 times during the year, including 10 days with over 50 million options contracts traded.
• In quarter 4 of 2021, the average daily options volume peaked at roughly 6 million contracts for positions constituting 1 to 10 contracts.
• Cboe generated $202.5 million from options revenue in Q4 of 2021, up $40 million (25%) from two years prior.
• Total option volume reached 3.4 billion contracts in 2022, the third consecutive record-breaking year.
• Total index options volume set a new annual record of 714.7 million contracts in 2022.

From listing the first options contract with strikes and expiration dates to recording 3.4 billion traded contracts in 2022, Cboe’s options journey has certainly been one to watch. If the past is any indication of the future, investors can expect Cboe to continue building the financial products the industry relies on. 

Featured Photo by Pedro Lastra on Unsplash

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