SEC Clears Cboe KPI Options, with Robinhood Set for Retail Launch

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has approved Cboe's proposal to list binary options linked to corporate performance indicators, opening the door to a new class of contracts that settle on reported business metrics rather than on share-price moves. Cboe filed the proposed rule change in July 2026. Trading has not started, and a separate application to clear the products is still pending.

Robinhood plans to become the first retail brokerage to offer the contracts. Both Cboe and Robinhood had targeted an October 2026 launch, though no exact date has been disclosed. Cboe intends to waive its exchange fees on the contracts through 2026, subject to regulatory review, while Robinhood has said it will not charge fees through the end of the year. Before trading can begin, Cboe Clear U.S. must obtain temporary registration to clear the products.

How the contracts work

The approved list covers more than 100 metrics across 23 companies. Examples include Apple's iPhone revenue, Nvidia's data-centre revenue, Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y production, and Robinhood's funded-customer count. Each contract settles according to whether a company reports the relevant key performance indicator above or below a predefined threshold. Cboe will decide which contracts to list and can set several thresholds around the most recently reported value.

The products are cash-settled, European-style options, meaning they can be exercised only at expiration. A contract that settles in the money pays a fixed $1, while one that does not expires worthless. Settlement will reference the metric as reported in the company's relevant SEC filing, rather than an earlier earnings press release.

Cboe argues the structure gives traders a more direct position on an earnings outcome. An investor could correctly forecast a company's revenue yet still lose money on a conventional stock option if the share price moved the other way for unrelated reasons.

A different route to prediction markets

The contracts take a different regulatory path from event contracts offered by platforms such as Kalshi, which operate on Commodity Futures Trading Commission-regulated exchanges. Cboe's KPI products will be securities listed on an SEC-regulated options exchange, giving retail brokers a way to offer prediction-style contracts under securities-options rules rather than through a separate prediction markets venue.

Earlier this year Cboe launched Cboe Predicts, binary options on the Mini-S&P 500 listed under the symbols XSPBW and XSPBX, which let traders take a "yes" or "no" position on whether XSP will close at or above a specified level.