Cboe Extends Option Trading Hours (Preview)

By Lawrence G. McMillan

The Cboe (followed by other exchanges) has extended the trading hours for certain stocks and ETFs. This has already taken place, although not every option trading platform has implemented its trading for the new hours.

The morning extended session runs from 7:30 a.m. (Eastern time) to 9:25 a.m. Then regular option trading begins at 9:30 a.m.

The extended afternoon session runs from 4:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. That isn’t as much of an extension, but does give one the opportunity to trade for a short while after the NYSE closes.

At one time in the past, options on most stocks traded until 4:10 p.m., but that was discontinued after large institutions complained that they were sometimes forced to mark their position in a stock with a 4:00 p.m. price (NYSE close), while options marked at 4:10 could sometimes reflect a completely different stock price (after earnings reports, for example). I haven’t seen any specifics, but obviously that problem has been solved.

There is one caveat: the options will not trade if the underlying stock is halted or otherwise not trading. Most of these stocks trade in the pre- and after-markets without a problem, but if for some reason they are halted, then the options won’t trade either.

What Stocks and ETFs are included?

The underlying stock symbols included in these new trading hours are: AAPL, AMD, AMZN, AVGO, BABA, BAC, F, GOOG, GOOGL, HOOD, INTC, META, MRVL, MSFT, MU, NFLX, NOK, NVDA, ORCL, PFE, PLTR, SNDK, TSLA, AND TSM...