Cboe Tweaks Fees for New Equal-Weight S&P Options Trading
Published Date: 5/8/2025
Notice
Summary
Cboe Exchange is updating its fee schedule to get ready for trading new options based on the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index, called SPEQX options. This means some fees will change, some surcharges won’t apply, and there’s a new incentive program for market makers. These changes take effect immediately, so traders and market makers should get ready for new costs and opportunities starting now.
Analyzed Economic Effects
8 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 4 costs, 2 mixed.
SPEQX LMM Incentive Program: $15,000 Monthly Rebate
The Exchange will offer a SPEQX Lead Market-Maker (LMM) incentive that pays an LMM $15,000 per month (pro-rated if appointment does not cover the full month) if the appointed LMM provides continuous electronic quotes during Regular Trading Hours that meet the heightened quoting standards in at least 90% of SPEQX series 90% of the time in a given month.
Exclusion From Multiple Fee Credit Programs
SPEQX options will be excluded from several Cboe fee and credit programs — including the Liquidity Provider Sliding Scale, Volume Incentive Program (VIP), Break-Up Credits (AIM/SAM/FLEX), Marketing Fee Program, Floor Broker Sliding Scale Rebate Program, and the ORS/CORS router subsidy programs. Volume in SPEQX will not count toward the volume calculations for those programs.
Clearing TPH Fee Cap Exclusion for Firm SPEQX Trades
Firm transactions (Clearing TPH capacity 'F' and Non-Clearing TPH Affiliates capacity 'L') in SPEQX will be excluded from the Clearing TPH Fee Cap that otherwise caps certain non-facilitation transaction fees at $65,000 per month per Clearing TPH.
Customer SPEQX Transaction Fee
If you trade SPEQX options as a public customer, the Exchange will assess a $0.05 per-contract fee (fee code E1). The Customer Large Trade Discount will cap regular customer transaction fees to the first 5,000 contracts per order in SPEQX options.
Non-Customer SPEQX Transaction Fee
Non-customer orders in SPEQX options (Clearing Trading Permit Holders, Market-Makers, broker-dealers, professionals, etc.) will be charged fee code E2 at $0.25 per contract for SPEQX trades.
FLEX Surcharge Applies to SPEQX FLEX Trades
Electronic FLEX orders in SPEQX will incur the FLEX surcharge fee of $0.10 per contract (capped at $250 per trade) for up to the first 2,500 contracts per trade, except for Cboe Compression Services (CCS) and FLEX Micro transactions.
Complex Surcharge Exclusion for Non-Customer Complex Orders
Non-customer complex orders in SPEQX will be excluded from the Complex Surcharge that otherwise applies when removing liquidity from the Complex Order Book and certain auction responses.
Outage Volume Adjustment Includes SPEQX
If the Exchange has a trading interruption lasting longer than 60 minutes, the Exchange will adjust national volume calculations for the entire trading day to include SPEQX in the list of symbols subject to that adjustment.
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