fbpx Option News | Option Strategist
Home » Blog Tags » Category » Option News

Celebrating 50 Years of Listed Option Trading!

By Lawrence G. McMillan

50 years ago, on April 23rd, 1973, the CBOE opened its doors and listed option trading began. For the first time, such things as standardized striking prices and expiration dates were available on an option contract.

The CBOE’s first President, Joe Sullivan, had done a tremendous amount of legwork, regulatory work, and arm-twisting (I’m sure) to get the exchange off the ground.

The Return of TVIX and XIV!

By Lawrence G. McMillan

Okay, there are new products that are not exactly the return of those two very popular ETN’s representing volatility trading (TVIX was double the price/speed of $VIX, and XIV was the inverse of $VIX), but two new ETF’s are attempting to do the same thing.

A New Volatility Product: Mini $VIX Futures

By Lawrence G. McMillan

The CBOE has listed mini volatility futures, trading with the base symbol VXM. These are worth $100 per point of movement, as opposed to the $1,000 per point of movement on the “big” volatility futures contract. Everything else is the same between the mini and the full contracts: expiration date, settlement pricing, etc. So far, only the first four months have mini contracts, while there are “big” volatility futures for nine months out. In hedged strategies, these can now be paired with the micro e-mini S&P futures (worth $5 per point of movement). This will allow smaller accounts to take advantage of some of the more sophisticated strategies. Volume in the mini volatility futures has been mostly in the front month, but the markets are tight (5 cents wide) so they are a viable trading tool at this time.

CBOE releases new option data site

Last week, the CBOE announced the launch of its new dedicated paid option data site titled the CBOE Livevol Data Shop. The new site is quite user friendly and allows one to customize their data package based on their needs. For example, a customer could purchase daily end-of-day option data including all of the greeks for not just all stocks, but instead just a select few. The prices reflect your preferences and can cost as little as $6 per month per underlying.

VIX Index Begins Overnight Pricing

On April 15, 2016, the CBOE began disseminating VIX prices in the overnight session. Now, the VIX index will be open during extended trading hours from 2:15 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. Central time. From the CBOE press realese: