JLN Options: 'Remarkable' US Options Growth Assessed; Exchange, Brokerage Competition Benefits Retail Options Traders

The editorial staff of Traders Magazine covered the State of the Industry panel at the Options Conference yesterday in a story titled "'Remarkable' US Options Growth Assessed," and Henry Schwartz of Cboe Global Markets highlighted the extraordinary growth in U.S. options trading, noting that after decades of slow development, the 2020s have brought annual double-digit volume increases and a dramatic rise in both the number of users and average trade size. Panelists attributed this surge to improved mobile technology making options more accessible to retail investors, as well as the influence of sports betting culture during the pandemic, and rapid advancements in trading technology. Notably, short-dated options have transformed the landscape, now accounting for two-thirds of the market compared to just one-third eight years ago - a shift that took off in 2022 as exchanges and brokerages capitalized on the trend. ~JJL

'Remarkable' US Options Growth Assessed
Editorial Staff - Traders Magazine
The opening afternoon of the annual Options Industry Conference is always good for a deep data dive, and Henry Schwartz, Vice President, Market Intelligence at Cboe Global markets didn't disappoint. Moderating the Tuesday afternoon "State of the Industry" panel at OIC in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, Schwartz opened with a high-level look at options volume since 1973. The first 25 years showed mostly nothing happening in what was a sleepy monopoly-type business; options volumes meaningfully increased over the next dozen years before being largely flat in the 2010s; followed by exploding volume in the 2020s with annual double-digit growth rates.
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Exchange, Brokerage Competition Benefits Retail Options Traders
Editorial Staff - Traders Magazine
A booming options market has exchanges and brokerage firms vigorously competing to capture and defend turf in fast-growing areas such as short-dated contracts and extended hours trading. The primary beneficiary of the "hand-to-hand combat" is the retail options trader.
"Individual investors wins when everyone is competing at a high level," said Chris Larkin, Managing Director, Head of Trading & Investing at E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley.
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Index Insights: April
Cboe
April 2025 was one of the most volatile and active periods in recent market history as investors and traders assessed the impact of the Trump administration's tariff announcement after the market close on April 2.
The Cboe S&P 500 Index (SPX), which had been averaging 1% daily moves in March, declined nearly 10% over the following two sessions. The VIX Index, already elevated near 30 ahead of the tariff news, increased into the mid-50s during several intense trading days. One-month realized volatility increased to nearly 43%-the highest level since 2020.
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Trading Technologies Readies Options Expansion
Editorial Staff - Traders Magazine
This week's Options Industry Conference in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida may be the last one without Trading Technologies representation. The SaaS provider to the capital markets industry, long a stalwart in futures, options on futures, and non-US options, plans to roll out support for US equity options as soon as this month. US equity options has become an increasingly attractive market, with strong growth over the past five years and a steady drumbeat of record volumes reported by market operators. Average daily volume was 25.9 million contracts in 2024, up from 17.5 million in 2019.
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Wall Street, Wrap Your Head Around This: Volatility Is Good
Teresa Rivas - Barron's
The start of the second Trump administration has been a rocky time for the stock market-to say the least. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
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Wall Street Fear Gauge Drops as Trade Tensions Ease
George Glover - Barron's
Investors were feeling a little calmer on Wednesday as news of a summit between the U.S. and China boosted hopes that the world's two largest economies will find a way to de-escalate their trade war.
The Cboe Volatility Index, a widely-followed Wall Street fear gauge that tracks S&P 500 options contracts and trades under the ticker VIX, slid 1.7% to just over 24 in early trading. Any reading of above 20 is typically seen as a sign of relatively high volatility.
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Lutnick's Plan to Rival CME With Futures Exchange Sees Delay
Bernard Goyder and Katherine Doherty - Bloomberg
A futures exchange that Howard Lutnick helped found, back when he was the chief executive officer of Cantor Fitzgerald LP, is struggling to launch its flagship product due to problems at its clearing house LCH Group, according to people familiar with the matter.
The FMX Futures Exchange, which was created by Lutnick's brokerage, BGC Group Inc., is attempting to debut US Treasury futures - its most high profile offering to date.
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Cboe Global Markets Declares Second-Quarter 2025 Dividend
Cboe
Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE), the world's leading derivatives and securities exchange network, today announced its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.63 per share of common stock for the second quarter of 2025. The second-quarter 2025 dividend is payable on June 13, 2025, to stockholders of record as of May 30, 2025.
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Cboe Global Markets Announces 2025 Annual Meeting Results
Cboe
Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE), the world's leading derivatives and securities exchange network, today announced the preliminary shareholder voting results from its 2025 Annual Meeting held today.
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EEX Group Monthly Volumes - April 2025; Monthly Volume Report
EEX
EEX Group reports its April monthly volumes with the following highlights:
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JPXI Adds "Outstanding Short Selling Positions Reported" to J-Quants API Data Service
JPX
JPX Market Innovation & Research (JPXI) will add the Outstanding Short-Selling Positions Reported dataset in the near future to J-Quants API, a data distribution service offering individuals insightful data on Japanese financial markets.
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Moscow Exchange Trading Volumes in April 2025
MOEX
In April 2025, total trading volumes across Moscow Exchange's markets was RUB 145.8 trln.
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Short-Dated Options, 24-Hour Trading Win Qualified Support From SEC
Editorial Staff - Traders Magazine
Trading options with shorter times until expiration has been a significant driver of growth in the options market in recent years. Keeping options markets open overnight may be a big driver of future growth. The US Securities and Exchange Commission is broadly constructive on both trends, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce signaled on Tuesday. Speaking Tuesday afternoon in a 'fireside chat' at the Options Industry Conference in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, Peirce said same-day options, commonly known as 0DTEs, have been a positive addition to the marketplace, but there are caveats. "Retail investors should be entering with eyes wide open," and concurrently the options industry needs to continue to provide education about the relatively new contracts.
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Follow the Flow: Maximizing Executions with Cboe Routing Strategies
Cboe
The U.S. equities market continues to grow, both in volumes traded and the number of venues in operation, increasing complexity and liquidity fragmentation. Since 2020, three new exchanges have entered the U.S. equities landscape - The Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE), Miami International Holdings (MIAX) and Members Exchange (MEMX) - increasing the total number of lit U.S. venues to 16. Additional exchanges1 have applied or been approved to become registered securities exchanges, while the number of Alternative Trading Systems (ATS) continues to grow, with over 32 currently operating. With additional trading platforms comes more fragmentation, causing liquidity dispersion and increased technology costs for firms connecting to new venues.
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Raising Debt to Buy Crypto Doesn't Work as Well as It Used To
Yiqin Shen - Bloomberg
The success of Michael Saylor's fundraising playbook for Strategy is causing trouble for its imitators, as the market for the convertible bonds they are using to fund Bitcoin buys is getting tighter - and a rival with heavyweight backers is about to start pumping out its own paper.
Twenty One Capital Inc., a Bitcoin treasury firm that counts stablecoin issuer Tether Holdings SA and SoftBank Group Corp. among its investors, plans to issue convertible bonds once it closes its merger with blank-check firm Cantor Equity Partners Inc., and will launch with more than 42,000 Bitcoin, worth roughly $4 billion at current prices. The company even included a term sheet for the convertibles in its investor presentation.
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Hopes that tariff fear has peaked sees this sentiment gauge flip to risk-on
Jamie Chisholm - MarketWatch
The stock market's sharp rally after its April swoon has flipped one measure of animal spirits on its head.
A risk-on/risk-off gauge tracking investor sentiment, created by analytics group Duality Research, showed risk aversion predominated during much of last month, but in May the mood has switched to being more gung ho.
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Billionaire Ken Griffin reveals the 'wake-up moment' in his 20s that helped drive him to success
Preston Fore - Fortune
Billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin is worth a staggering $42 billion-and he says his success is largely thanks to learning to take risks early in his career. "When you're in your 20s, what's your worst-case scenario?" the Citadel CEO advises Gen Z students. Confidence and conviction don't come easy-especially when you're just getting started in your career. It's often sparked by a promotion or a winning pitch. For Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, it all started with the message on a plaque in the office of an early financial backer. The billionaire recently recalled the "wake-up moment" in his 20s that set the tone for his career.
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