By Townhall Chicago News Staff
Chicago-based Cboe Global Markets on Monday launched extended pre-market and post-market trading sessions for select single-stock and exchange-traded fund options, making its Cboe Options Exchange the first U.S. options exchange to offer such sessions for equity options.
The new sessions allow trading of options on 24 single stocks and five ETFs during a pre-market window from 7:30 a.m. to 9:25 a.m. ET and a post-market session from 4 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, according to a company news release.
The eligible symbols include some of the most actively traded names on U.S. exchanges: Apple, Amazon, Nvidia, Tesla, Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet, Netflix and several major ETFs including SPY, QQQ and IWM. Through September, options on those names accounted for approximately 53 percent of average daily U.S.-listed options volume in 2026, the company said.
“Building on our 53-year history of innovation and our expertise in offering expanded hours for our flagship index options, Cboe led this important initiative with extensive input from retail and institutional participants,” Rob Hocking, global head of derivatives at Cboe, said in the release. “The shift to 24×5 trading across asset classes is only accelerating.”
Hocking said demand for Cboe’s index options during non-traditional hours has been strong, particularly around the U.S. market open when economic data and corporate announcements are commonly released. The addition of equity options to those extended sessions gives global investors more flexibility to manage positions and risk, he said.
Several major brokers are supporting the launch. Fidelity Investments, Interactive Brokers, Robinhood, Moomoo US, Tiger Brokers Singapore, TradeStation and Tradier are among those offering or planning to offer access.
“Options have long been an important tool for Fidelity investors seeking to manage risk and pursue market opportunities,” Josh Krugman, senior vice president of brokerage at Fidelity Investments, said. “Cboe’s extended trading hours represent a meaningful evolution for the options market.”
Milan Galik, CEO of Interactive Brokers, said the move addresses a gap in the market. “Markets move around the clock, but trading hours for US equity options have remained limited,” Galik said. “We welcome Cboe’s initiative to narrow that gap.”
Cboe already offers near-24-hour, five-day-a-week trading for several of its proprietary index options through its Global Trading Hours and Curb Trading Hours sessions. Those sessions achieved record monthly and quarterly average daily volume in September and the third quarter of 2026, the company said.
The exchange’s U.S. equities business currently operates from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET. Cboe plans to launch 23-hour-a-day, five-day-a-week trading on its Cboe BZX Exchange on Dec. 6, subject to industry readiness.
Cboe will not open a class of options if the underlying security has not opened and will generally halt an options class if the associated underlying security halts.
The company, which trades on its own exchange under the ticker CBOE, pioneered the listed options market when it launched the world’s first listed options exchange in 1973. Cboe also created the VIX Index, widely regarded as the market’s primary gauge of volatility.
The extended trading sessions are available immediately. Additional information is available on Cboe’s equity options extended trading hours FAQ page.
