In April 2026, Cboe FX Spot Average Daily Volume (ADV) reached $53.8 billion. Cboe SEF ADV1 topped $4.0 billion, representing a 17.2% increase from April 2025's ADV of $3.4 billion.
U.S. cash equities rebounded sharply in April as selling pressure eased and risk appetite improved. Following year‑to‑date lows touched in late March, the S&P 500® Index increased 10.4% in April and the Russell 2000® Index outperformed with a 12.2% gain, reflecting renewed interest in cyclical and small‑cap exposure.
The options market experienced significant growth and dynamic shifts during the first quarter of 2026, marked by record-setting volumes across major index, ETF, and single stock contracts. There was robust activity in both established and newly launched products, as well as evolving regulatory and structural developments.
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At 1/10th the size of SPX, XSP offers very similar notional size, weekly expirations, and PM-settlement to SPY, but with even more potential benefits.
Many trading strategies, such as covered-call or spread trading, involve options writing (selling), where the primary risks are market movement and volatility. But there's another risk if you happen to be writing options on dividend-paying equities like SPY ETFs: early assignment.
There are a number of different types of options contracts available on broad-based U.S. equity indexes. Some of the most actively traded products include options on SPY, SPX and XSPSM (Mini-SPX). They all track the S&P 500® and both SPY and XSP options have the same notional size, making them somewhat interchangeable. A key difference, however, is settlement style.
As of November 3, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted amendments to certain rules of Regulation National Market System (Regulation NMS), one of which was introducing a new price-tiered round lot framework for NMS stocks. Under the new framework, round lot sizes are scaled to share price: 100 shares for stocks priced at or below $250, 40 shares for stocks priced between $250 and $1,000, 10 shares for stocks between $1,000 and $10,000 and one share for stocks priced above $10,000.
Q1 2026 saw record trading volumes in European equities, driven by strong investor interest and ongoing geopolitical developments. For Cboe Europe, it was a record quarter as we retained our position as Europe’s largest equities exchange.
U.S. equities total market Average Daily Volume (ADV) rose 2.3% month-over-month to 20.5 billion shares, surpassing February 2026 record volume and up 27.8% year-over-year.
