Cboe Blogs

New study highlights volatility risk premium for strategies that sell Russell 2000 options With the low interest rate environment and steady bull market of recent years, lower yields and lower expected returns from “traditional” investments have left many investors wanting more. If you’re looking for new strategies that have the potential to harness the rich pricing of options and to enhance risk-adjusted returns, Wilshire Analytics may have a solution. The recently published Wilshire[...]

In January, Cboe published its vision for equity market structure reform. Our goal in drafting this report was to create a new dialogue – to shift the focus to what’s working well and what could be enhanced. Our customer-first approach means we value investor choice and we are dedicated to defining markets that are beneficial to all those who participate in them. We’ve already received great industry feedback on this document and want to keep the momentum going. If you haven’t[...]

Everyone Has a Plan Until… Thirty years ago (February 11, 1990) Buster Douglas shocked the world when he knocked out Mike Tyson in the 10th round of their Tokyo bout. Tyson came into the fight as the undefeated and undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. He had 37 wins, 0 losses and had never been knocked down. Douglas had lost his previous fight, his mother had passed away three weeks prior, and was listed as a 42:1 longshot. Mike Tyson had an air of invincibility and arguably underestimated[...]

This year’s stellar lineup of Cboe RMC speakers is led by two dynamic keynotes, John Coates and Annie Duke. Decision-making experts, authors and academics, Coates and Annie have no shortage of insights to share. Learn more about them below. John Coates | Derivatives Trader Turned Behavioral Neuroscientist John Coates’ early career including trading derivatives for Goldman Sachs and running a trade desk for Deutsche Bank. As a trader, Coates watched fellow traders make countless decisions[...]

Cboe Market Close (CMC), an alternative to closing auctions in the U.S. stock market, is planned to launch on Friday, March 6, 2020, after receiving SEC approval on January 22, 2020. Cboe Market Close was created to reduce closing auction costs and provide an alternative source of on-close liquidity for market participants by creating competition around Market-On-Close (MOC) orders. Its approval by the SEC staff after a robust, transparent and public comment period affirms the obvious case for[...]

"What — Me, Worry?" On the December 1956 cover of Mad Magazine, Alfred E. Neuman made the first of his many appearances as a write-in candidate for President of the United States. As one of the longest running satirical publications in US history, the writers of Mad Magazine both parodied and captured the omnipresent state of uncertainty. In capital markets, some degree of worry is inevitable. Market practitioners and talking heads often reference the "wall of worry" that equity and fixed[...]

Not All Tenors Behave the Same As the holiday season draws to a close, I am reminded of the music of my childhood. When we put up holiday decorations my mom would invariably play The Three Tenors Christmas on an antiquated cassette player. I can still hear Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, and Jose Carreras singing Silent Night or Happy Christmas (War is Over) in my mind. They were the only “tenors” I knew until I started working on the Cboe. In finance, tenor has a different[...]

As Head of U.S. Equities at Cboe, I recently laid out my team's plans for 2020 in a letter to Cboe's customers. Read on to learn about what's in store for U.S. Equities at Cboe this year. Cboe’s Customer-First Approach As we start a new year at Cboe, we’re going all-in on our customer-first approach by organizing ourselves in a way that better serves you. What exactly does that look like? Expert Dialogue. A dedicated team that knows you, your firm and your trading goals. We’re[...]

The 2010s experienced the longest U.S. bull market ever and was also the first 10-year stretch in nearly 170 years that didn’t experience a U.S. recession. U.S. stocks closed out 2019 with a 190 percent gain, and according to The New York Times, in 2019, you “couldn’t lose money in the market if you tried.” So, how did the first week of 2020 fare in comparison? Are we heading for another historic year or is there change in the air? Here are the big market-moving headlines[...]

While the managing editor of the Farmers' Almanac states that the new decade actually starts in 2021, we were feeling nostalgic as we say goodbye to our teenage years and head into 2020. Sure, we've got one more year to go, but we wanted to share some interesting trends we found over the past 10 years. Marked by unprecedented growth, the 2010s experienced the longest U.S. bull market in history and was the first 10-year span in at least 170 years that did not experience a recession in the U.S. As[...]

A December (&Year) To Remember "It’s (supposedly) the most wonderful time of the year With the S&P 500® up about 25% (YTD as of 12/6/2019) And Trudeau caught on hot mics It’s the most wonderful time of the year It’s the hap-happiest season of all With those holiday greetings (you're not spending 2%) and the happy (Doral>Camp David) meetings When G7/NATO "friends" may come to call It’s the hap-happiest season of all There’ll be judicial hearings for[...]

Four Centuries of Thanksgiving (And a Side of Volatility) Arguably the finest American holiday is upon us. Our Day of Thanksgiving traces its roots to the earliest Puritan settlers in the New World. The religious separatists who sailed across the Atlantic in the autumn of 1620 were greeted by an especially cruel winter during which half the colonists perished. In the Spring of 1621, Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe, is said to have taught the struggling settlers how to grow corn, catch native[...]

Carol Kennedy, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, and Arianne Criqui, Global Head of Derivatives and Global Client Services, were honored at the 5th Annual Markets Media Awards: Women in Finance for excellence in their fields. The awards recognize the most talented and accomplished women in the finance industry. Carol and Arianne were nominated because of their dedication, passion and persistence. They are extraordinary at what they do and exemplify what it means to be a leader. Learn more[...]

Volatility: It Just Is From a capital markets "meta" standpoint, volatility just is. Volatility is a nondirectional, statistical measure of the dispersion of returns for a given security or index. It’s neither good nor bad. From an interpersonal and psychological standpoint, volatility typically connotes something very different than a rote calculation. Few people wake up looking forward to "volatility" in their day-to-day lives, but uncertainty is a constant whether you invest or not. Volatility[...]

Death, Taxes and VRP? Not So Fast! Shortly after the U.S. Constitution was ratified (June 1788) and months before Benjamin Franklin passed away (April 1790), he wrote a letter saying, "Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." Others have attributed the idiom to Christopher Bullock and/or Daniel Defoe, but in this context, it’s important that none of them mentioned volatility[...]