ANALYSIS: Cboe European Derivatives plans 'sustainable growth'
6th October, 2025|Radi Khasawneh
Cboe Global Market’s European derivatives venue is hoping for a period of “sustainable” growth as the Amsterdam-based exchange looks to draw on the support of its market-maker clients.
Speaking to FOW as the firm reported a record 26,331 contracts traded in September across futures and options, the head of European derivatives at Cboe Europe said the firm’s partnerships with retail brokers are starting to bear fruit.
The September total, which represents a 265% year-on-year increase according to FOW data, followed the previous monthly high of 23,855 lots in August.
“The vast majority of the flow is coming from retail platforms and is facilitated by tier one liquidity providers, including All Options, IMC and Susquehanna, with high demand for single stock options across the board,” Iouri Saroukhanov (pictured) said in an interview. “That has been supported by our education effort, with a series of local language courses undertaken in the period in collaboration with The Options Institute and retail brokers.
“When we look at the platform overall, we have confidence in the sustainability of that growth as we build broad-based liquidity.”
In addition to the monthly records, Cboe Europe Derivatives (CEDX), which launched in Amsterdam in September 2021, hit a single day trading record of 3,995 lots on September 23.
“After a record August, it is great to see the momentum carrying on in September with new highs across a series of metrics,” he added. “We have had our best single day, best week and a monthly volume record. The third quarter saw overall volume rise by more than 110% compared to the same quarter in 2024. On the open interest front, we saw a record daily high of more than 37,000 contracts during September, compared to 31,500 lots in August.”
Cboe onboarded Interactive Brokers in May last year and Dutch market-maker IMC in June who joined options market-makers Susquehanna and Morgan Stanley which were already quoting prices at that time.
CEDX competes in Europe with more established and far-larger markets run by Eurex and Euronext.
Eurex in September traded 60.2 million lots in equity index derivatives and 23.5 million contracts in single stock contracts, according volumes published on Monday. Euronext in August reported equity derivatives volume of 8 million lots.
In a bid to broaden the user base further, Cboe plans to launch early next year a European version of FLEX options, the US group said last month. FLEX options, which are listed contracts with customisable terms, are popular with issuers of exchange traded funds (ETFs) in the US.
“After the explosive growth of option-based ETFs in the US, including defined outcome issuance in particular, we had firms reach out to us with interest in developing a FLEX offering in Europe to further support that market,” Saroukhanov said. “What we have seen is an acceleration of interest for trading and clearing of FLEX options from a broad ecosystem of clients since the announcement.”
“In Europe, we have seen inflows into UCITS ETFs referencing underlying across regions,” Saroukhanov added. “That wider adoption has been driven by users across the spectrum, including retail traders. As outcome-based ETFs grow European assets under management, we do not expect to see a large impact on existing structured product notes universe.
“What makes us different from the US proposition is that the UCITS compliant ETFs and options can be used for exposure in multiple currencies, with a range of underlyings beyond the US dollar. So there will be a lot more flexibility for users beyond just European exposure, and that can be distributed and packaged into ETFs globally.”
After the launch of FLEX options, Cboe will be in a position to leverage the technical capabilities to expand its suite of European single stock options, a key strategic area of growth for the exchange.
“Once we have completed the roll-out early next year, from the clearing perspective we will have the license to process a variety of option types,” Saroukhanov said. “That cuts across execution types and cash or physical delivery. That will make it very easy for us to extend that logic and list a standard chain of cash-settled single stock options in Europe.”
