SEC grants accelerated approval for Cboe VIX future-option orders

The Securities and Exchange Commission issued an order approving, on an accelerated basis, Cboe Exchange, Inc.'s proposed rule change to adopt VIX future-option orders. The order appears in the Federal Register (Vol. 91, No. 169, Sep. 2, 2026; FR Doc No. 2026-17908) and references Release No. 34-106216; File No. SR-CBOE-2026-004.

Cboe initially filed the proposal on Jan. 5, 2026, and published it for comment on Jan. 16, 2026. The Commission designated Apr. 16, 2026, and later Sep. 13, 2026, as dates by which it must act, and instituted proceedings on Apr. 9, 2026. No comments were received. Cboe filed Amendment No. 1 on Aug. 6, 2026, superseding the original filing, and Amendment No. 2 on Aug. 17, 2026, to correct technical errors.

Amendment No. 1 narrows the scope to VIX future-option orders, adds discussion of FLEX VIX future-option orders, revises the process for submitting the VX futures component to the Chicago Futures Exchange, expands regulatory oversight of the VIX options and VX futures components, and permits Immediate-or-Cancel (IOC) orders. The amendment also clarifies that VIX future-option orders are electronic-only and not eligible for open-outcry trading.

The rule defines a VIX future-option order as an inter-regulatory spread order that must consist of groups of VX futures and VIX option legs with the same expiration. Each group must provide a risk offset of no less than 10 % and no greater than 125 %, expressed as a delta between -0.10 and -1.25. The system rejects any order that cannot be grouped accordingly.

The Commission is publishing this notice to solicit comment on Amendment No. 1 while granting accelerated approval of the rule change as modified by Amendments No. 1 and 2.