New Global Trading Hours (GTH) and Curb sessions for options on 24 of the most active single stocks and five ETFs went live on Monday, October 19 with a smooth rollout of electronic trading on Cboe Options Exchange (C1) and NYSE American Options. Early data shows retail and institutional traders are finding value in the ability to enter and adjust positions earlier in the day and after the traditional 4 p.m. close, expanding the opportunity set for a range of global participants and use cases.
During this initial week, over 180,000 contracts traded in the new sessions, with the 7:30-9:25 a.m. ET GTH period making up nearly 93% of the flow. 63% of the morning volume and 91% of the curb session volume was executed on C1. Consistent with volume during Regular Trading Hours (RTH), ETFs saw the greatest activity. Notably, this first week included continuous trading through corporate earnings releases and the publication of several macroeconomic statistics.
First Week Highlights
Exhibit 1: GTH and Curb Total Daily Option Volume (Oct 19-23)
Source: Cboe
- Volume picked up quickly: Following initial days with nearly 20,000 contracts trading, activity spiked Thursday to 55,000 and topped 82,000 contracts on Friday.
- ETF options dominated: SPY, QQQ and IWM made up roughly 79% of contracts traded.
- Single Stock options flow mirrored regular trading hours, led by NVDA and TSLA.
- Cboe market share: 63% of the morning (GTH) session and 91% of the afternoon Curb session was executed on C1.
- Trade sizes and participation data indicate a mix of participants: Trades of five-lots and smaller made up 85% of the volume, while larger blocks included a number of 1000-lot trades in QQQ on Monday, and a block of 4100 contracts in IWM on Friday.
- Total option premium traded exceeded $66 million across all products in the first five days.
Volume Growth and Expectations
Access and displayed liquidity take time to build, as brokers and liquidity providers ramp up operations and end-users become aware of the new hours. Internal data show the largest retail platforms began offering the session to clients later in the week, resulting in Thursday's climb to nearly 55,000 contracts, with several large ETF option blocks pushing Friday morning session volume past 80,000. The shorter curb session, which includes the single stock options only, is not yet available on some of the larger brokerage platforms and made up less than 10% of the volume between the two sessions.
Market Quality: ETF Options Set the Pace
During the GTH session, average bid-ask spreads were tightest in the most liquid ETFs: SPY, IWM and QQQ, where the deepest sources of overnight spot and derivative liquidity are available. In SPY, which made up 42% of the total GTH activity, the average bid-ask narrowed from 8c on the first day to 4c by Wednesday, while averaged displayed size grew from about 170 to nearly 300 contracts.
Exhibit 2: SPY GTH Average Bid-Ask Spread and Displayed Size
Source: Cboe
ETF Options Took the Early Lead
In line with regular trading hours, SPY was the most active product, with more than 16,000 trades executed, totaling just over 77,000 contracts, followed by QQQ with over 50,000 and IWM near 16,500. On the single-stock options side, NVDA (7,224), TSLA (6,542), MU (2,830) and AAPL (2,563) were most active, with continuous trading proceeding without incident during TSLA, META, NFLX and NOK earnings releases.
Cboe Leads on Market Share
Cboe Options Exchange (C1) captured 63% of morning-session volume and 91% of the Curb session this week. In SPY, Cboe handled more than 55,000 of the 77,314 contracts (71%). In ORCL, Cboe handled 1,442 of 1,531 contracts (94%).
Exhibit 3: Cboe Share of GTH and Curb Session Volume
Source: Cboe
What’s next
Significant developments in listed derivatives require a coordinated effort among market participants to ensure seamless execution, liquidity and clearing. Activity this week is a major milestone for listed options and underscores the capacity of our markets and client demand for access outside of regular trading hours. Early data shows a diverse group of early adopters leading to increasing volume and developing market quality. With additional domestic and overseas brokers onboarding in coming weeks, we expect to see increased volume and a broadening of activity, particularly among single stocks, to meet the needs of new and existing users and use-cases.
Exhibit 4: GTH Summary Statistics (Oct 19-23, 2026)
Source: Cboe
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