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9:56in productionCh. 1 · The First Options Exchange/ 9:56 · ceiling 15 min
Finance · Companies

Cboe Global Markets

1973

A 1973 options experiment became a global exchange empire — but its open outcry floor is a museum piece, not a moat.

Cboe Global Markets is a vertically integrated exchange operator whose business rests on three geographically and structurally distinct markets — U.S. options, U.S. equities, and European equities — all anchored by a 1973 innovation. Its open outcry floor contradicts its electronic dominance. Its growth came not from product invention after 1973, but from acquisition and rebranding. It is a case study in infrastructure longevity, not disruption.

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Chapters & takeaways4
  1. 1:06
    The First Options Exchange

    Cboe was founded in 1973 by the Chicago Board of Trade to list the world’s first standardised, exchange-traded stock options.

  2. 2:22
    Three Exchanges, One Owner

    Cboe controls 30% of U.S. options, 10% of U.S. equities, and 25% of European equities — three distinct markets, one corporate entity.

  3. 4:07
    The Last Open Outcry Floor

    It maintains an open outcry trading floor in Chicago — the only major exchange operator still doing so at scale.

  4. 5:32
    From CBOE to Global Markets

    It went public in June 2010 and rebranded to Cboe Global Markets in October 2017 — signalling a shift from U.S. options specialist to global infrastructure provider.

Worth your time?

Yes. Study the whole thing.

4/ 5
What works
  • standardisation-as-infrastructure
  • acquisition-driven-globalisation
  • legacy-mechanism-as-brand-signifier
What does not
  • disrupt
  • invent
  • scale organically
Study it if
  • market-structure-analysts
  • exchange-regulators
  • financial-history-students
Skip it if
  • startup-founders
  • venture-capitalists
  • product-managers
The written brief1 min read

What the company or idea is

Cboe Global Markets is an American financial exchange operator founded in 1973, headquartered in Chicago, operating the largest U.S. options exchange (30% share), third-largest U.S. equities exchange (10%), and largest stock exchange in Europe (25%).

How it actually makes money

Cboe Global Markets makes money by charging fees for trading, listing, data, and market infrastructure services across its U.S. options, U.S. equities, and European stock exchanges.

What works

Its 1973 launch of standardised options created a new asset class and pricing discipline; its acquisitions and rebranding (2017) successfully extended that franchise into European equities and multi-asset infrastructure.

What does not

Its open outcry trading floor in Chicago is an operational anomaly in a fully electronic global market — costly to maintain and disconnected from its dominant electronic revenue streams.

What to take from it

Cboe shows how a single innovation — standardised, exchange-traded stock options — can anchor a decades-long business model even as ownership, branding, and geography expand far beyond its origin.

Is it worth your time

Yes — if you are studying how legacy financial infrastructure scales globally while preserving analog mechanisms like open outcry.

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10:08
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10:12
Singapore Exchange1999Singapore Exchange is a vertically integrated national infrastructure operator, formed by statutory consolidation in 1999. It monetises control over the full financial market value chain — listing, trading, clearing, settlement, depository and data — across equities, fixed income, currencies and commodities. Its successes in OTC clearing and iron ore swaps flowed directly from that control; its failure with JADE exposed its dependence on unilateral authority, not collaboration. It is not a technology innovator or market maker — it is a regulator-enabled gatekeeper.
11:00
Bolsas y Mercados Españoles2002Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BME) is Spain’s operator of stock exchanges and financial market infrastructure. It owns Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, and Bilbao exchanges; Latibex; Openfinance; BME Clearing; and Iberclear — formed in 2003 by merging CADE and SCLV. It listed on 14 July 2006, was an IBEX 35 constituent from July 2007 to December 2015, had a €2.1bn market capitalisation in 2019, and was acquired by SIX Group in 2020.
11:44
TMX Group2007TMX Group is a vertically integrated Canadian market infrastructure operator that owns and runs competing exchanges, clearing houses, data services, and brokerage arms — but operates them as separate revenue streams rather than a coordinated system.
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