ANALYSIS: Experts discuss rise of Asian options led by retail
18th September, 2025|Radi Khasawneh
An explosion in the use of short-dated derivatives in the Asia region should be supplemented by robust risk frameworks and education efforts by exchanges, a panel of experts has said.
Speaking at the FOW Trading Asia event in Hong Kong on Wednesday, the head of futures clearing sales for the Asia Pacific (APAC) at Marex, said Asian exchanges and brokers have increased access to options in the hope of replicating the products' success in the US.
“The overall growth of single stock options comes not just from exchanges in Asia responding to the US, but demand from clients in the region both institutional and retail clients for global access to single stock options,” Karan Jalan said at the event. “That continues to grow and diversify into other asset classes.”
Asian stock options trading increased by a fifth in the first eight months of this year to 1.45bn lots, according to FOW Data, putting that market on track for its latest record year.
Jalan went on to suggest an increase in the number of retail-based products in the region should be matched by more robust risk management systems at exchanges.
“That trend is just continuing to grow,” Jalan said. “The exchange innovation on that is being compounded by the fact that retail investors in particular can now access these [contracts] at low cost, they can get leverage and with very minimal upfront capital trade in these markets.
“So the risk element does increase, one thing we have to bear in mind in addition to the growth of these products is that the risk framework has to keep up, because that is super important for the integrity of the market and systems. We’ve seen in some markets the disruption that can be caused when that doesn’t go well.”
The head of derivatives institutional sales for APAC at market-maker Optiver said awareness of downside risks is a crucial part of developing the market further.
"Education is going to be incredibly important,” Stephane Martin said. “I think the lesson to be learned from India and the US is that introducing new derivatives products into the market comes with risk. Retail participation is going to increase – I think we are all agreed on that – but obviously so does the potential for downside.
“As a firm and as a region we should be incredibly excited about what is to come in terms of product innovation (or what is already happening now) but I do think education is going to play a big part in sustaining the boom.”
Raymond Wong, head of APAC markets at GH Financials, said Asian exchanges should take a leading role in educating clients.
“I do believe a lot of exchanges would perhaps defer to the retail broker to be educating,” Wong said. “I have a very different view, I think if you are a venue or a platform that trades and executes these products it's actually your responsibility to provide material for the retail broker to distribute, to provide the seminars to educate and reduce that systematic risk because the hot money is coming from retail. Education is absolutely paramount for a sustainable, high volume option market.”
In Europe, Cboe Global Markets, Eurex and Euronext have launched fresh education programs and widening single stock coverage in the last year.
Eurex first rolled out weekly index options on its flagship Euro STOXX 50 and German DAX indices in April 2006 before developing the product suite to include a host of single name and other benchmarks. The German exchange added daily options on the two indices in August 2023. Euronext also has same day options expiries.
