Cboe Opens New Trading Floor In Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Building

June 06, 2022 - Cboe Global Markets, Inc. has gone back to its roots and opens its new trading floor today in Chicago at 141 W. Jackson Boulevard, the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) building. Cboe's new trading floor returns to the same space where it was founded in 1973 as the first listed options exchange in the U.S.

Ed Tilly, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cboe Global Markets commented on today's reopening, "Today marks a historic occasion for Cboe Global Markets and our entire trading floor community, as we return to the place of our origins where Cboe – and the U.S. listed options market – began. With Cboe's founding nearly fifty years ago, we created a brand new market that has transformed the way the world manages market volatility and risk. Our trading floor has since symbolized Cboe's relentlessly innovative and entrepreneurial spirit, and embodied the strength and vigor of Chicago as the financial derivatives capital of the world. We couldn't be more excited to begin the next chapter in the ongoing story of Cboe, as we open the doors to our new trading floor to begin a new era of open outcry."

Located in the historic Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Building, Cboe's new trading floor spans the seventh and eighth floors, occupying more than 40,000 square feet, with double-height floor to ceiling windows that overlook Chicago's historic LaSalle Street financial district.

The new floor offers state-of-the-art infrastructure, enhanced technology capabilities, and a flexible, open and dynamic environment to facilitate more seamless and efficient interaction between traders.

"Our customers continue to find value in open outcry trading, especially for executing larger, more complex orders, and rely on the floor for price discovery and the deep liquidity provided by our market-makers and floor brokers," said Chris Isaacson, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Cboe Global Markets. "Our new and enhanced trading floor offers a vibrant, technology-driven environment that seamlessly integrates both open outcry and electronic trading mechanisms to provide our customers a truly unrivaled, world-class trading experience. We believe this dynamic new space will serve our customers and investors well – now and for years to come."

Cboe's new trading floor houses a total of 10 trading pits, including S&P 500 Index (SPX) options, Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) options, Russell 2000 Index (RUT) and SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) options pits. Significantly, the floor provides market-makers and brokers with more space, including expanded capacity to meet demand from firms looking to support additional floor-based traders. More than 330 individual kiosks, equipped with top-of-the-line technology, are available on the floor to enable traders to plug in and use their devices with greater ease and flexibility.

In addition, the floor features a bell-ringing platform overlooking the trading pits and state-of-the-art media broadcasting capabilities that include a ceiling-mounted camera track system. Visitor and employee amenities are located on the eighth floor and include a guest experience center, office and meeting spaces, and an observation deck that offers commanding views of the trading floor below.

Cboe's first trading floor began in the CBOT's former smoking lounge, a 4,000 square-foot space located on the fourth floor of the building. Cboe later expanded its trading floor to the seventh floor in response to growing demand for U.S. listed options trading.

The CBOT Building continued to house Cboe's trading pits in the late '70s and early '80s, until Cboe moved its headquarters to 400 S. LaSalle Street in 1984. In 2021, in a reflection of its continued commitment to Chicago, the company opened its new global headquarters in the city's historic Old Post Office building on 433 W. Van Buren Street.

David Howson, Executive Vice President and Global President of Cboe Global Markets, said, "Cboe has played an important role in helping to build Chicago into a key financial center in the global economy, and continues to draw a community of traders, clearing firms and other market participants to the city. As Cboe cements itself as one of the world's leading global market infrastructure providers, we remain deeply connected to Chicago and are proud to reaffirm our commitment to the city."

In May 2021, the CME took the decision to not reopen its open outcry trading pits (except Eurodollar options) after they were closed in March 2020 due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The CME Eurodollar options pit reopened in a new location, 141 West Jackson, last month (May 23). CME's business has shifted to the Exchange's virtually 24-hour electronic platform Globex.

The London Metal Exchange (LME) also closed its open-outcry "ring" in March 2020 due to the pandemic and in January 2021 released a discussion paper proposing to permanently shut the 144 year-old metal exchange's open-outcry trading. This met with stiff opposition from traders and member firms and open outcry on the LME was restarted in September 2021, after 18 months of closure.