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.
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.
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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.
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.
The industry moves closer to making around-the-clock trading for U.S. equities markets a reality each day, and I am proud that Cboe is at the forefront of this evolution. We have officially submitted a proposal to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch near 24x5 U.S. Equities trading on Cboe EDGX Equities Exchange (EDGX) in December 2026, subject to regulatory review and industry development.
European equity trading volumes reached all-time highs in February, with Cboe Europe posting record monthly volumes for total trading, Periodic Auctions, Cboe BIDS Europe and Cboe Closing Cross (3C)
