Cboe Extends Options Hours for 24 Stocks and 5 ETFs

Cboe Global Markets will extend options trading for 24 stocks and five exchange-traded funds beginning October 19, 2026. The new sessions will run from 7:30 to 9:25 a.m. ET and from 4:00 to 4:15 p.m. ET, giving investors additional time to trade the selected contracts around the regular market day.

Two additional trading windows

The pre-market session opens at 7:30 a.m. ET and ends at 9:25 a.m. ET on weekdays. The later session runs for 15 minutes, from 4:00 to 4:15 p.m. ET. The expanded hours apply to the specified stock and ETF options, rather than every options contract on Cboe.

The change follows SEC approval for the exchange and the Options Clearing Corporation to offer the extended sessions. Cboe already provides pre- and post-market trading periods for index options, making the new schedule an expansion of access to additional types of contracts, not the exchange’s first trading outside regular hours.

Which stocks and ETFs are included

The initial stock list covers 24 companies, including the Magnificent Seven: Nvidia, Tesla, Apple and the other members of that group. It also includes large technology names Oracle and Micron, alongside retail-trading favourites Robinhood, Nokia and Palantir, as well as Pfizer and Alibaba.

Five ETF options are included: SPY, the State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust; QQQ, the Invesco QQQ Trust; IWM, the iShares Russell 2000 ETF; GLD, SPDR Gold Shares; and XLF, the State Street Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF. Cboe plans to review and update the eligible list twice a year, so the starting roster is not necessarily permanent.

Eligibility depends on trading activity

To qualify, an underlying security must meet three activity and size tests: average daily options volume of at least 150,000 contracts over the preceding six months, a market value of $50 billion, and average daily share volume of at least 10 million. These thresholds focus the extended sessions on actively traded, large securities.

SpaceX does not currently qualify under the stated criteria. The rules help explain why the new hours will cover a selected group rather than the full range of listed options. For investors, the practical benefit is more time to respond to developments before the main session or shortly after it closes, but only for contracts on eligible names.

Overseas access and market activity

The longer schedule is intended to broaden access to US options, including for international investors whose local hours may not align with the core US session. The 7:30 a.m. ET opening gives traders an earlier window, while the 4:15 p.m. close extends the day modestly for investors reacting to late developments.

Demand for trading beyond regular hours is already visible in Cboe’s index-options activity. The exchange recorded an average of 228,097 contracts traded daily in its pre-market session last quarter, a record. That figure relates to the existing index-options session; it is not a forecast of volume in the newly eligible stock and ETF contracts.

Broker support and what comes next

TradeStation and Robinhood Markets have said they will offer access to the new sessions. TradeStation’s president and chief executive officer, John Bartleman, said the longer hours would give traders more flexibility to respond to market-moving events. Actual availability for customers will depend on their broker’s offering and the eligible contracts.

The extended sessions are part of broader changes to options trading. Cboe plans to list additional morning expiries on November 9, while the exchange has also received SEC approval to offer binary options tied to company-specific key performance indicators. For now, the immediate change is narrower: more hours for options on a defined set of 24 stocks and five ETFs.

Takeaway: From October 19, eligible Cboe stock and ETF options gain a weekday pre-market window and a 15-minute post-market session.