When do select stock options trade early?

Select equity options on the current list trade from 7:30 to 9:25 a.m. ET and from 4:00 to 4:15 p.m. ET. The Cboe extended-hours FAQ says order acceptance begins at 7:15 a.m.

Checked 2026-10-19.

When do the new sessions run?

Cboe accepts these orders from 7:15 a.m. ET. The morning session runs 7:30 to 9:25 a.m. ET, and the afternoon session runs 4:00 to 4:15 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday. Equity morning hours do not run on a holiday. NYSE American lists production symbols for October 19, 2026, with order entry from 6:00 to 7:30 a.m. ET.

The Cboe extended-hours FAQ lists order acceptance at 7:15 a.m., a morning session from 7:30 to 9:25 a.m. ET, and an afternoon session from 4:00 to 4:15 p.m. ET. SEC Release 34-105569 says the exchange would permit trading Monday through Friday in designated equity options. It says the morning session would run from 7:30 a.m. to 9:25 a.m., and the afternoon session from 4:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. for equity options that are not ETP options already trading until 4:15 p.m. as regular hours. The order says Global Trading Hours for equity options will not occur on a holiday, unlike index options. It says Rule 5.1(e) already states that there is no Curb Trading Hours on domestic and international holidays, and that these provisions would also apply to equity options.

The Cboe news release of May 28, 2026 also says the sessions run Monday to Friday. That release named July 13, 2026 as a planned start, subject to SEC approval of a related rule filing. The NYSE American fact sheet, version 1.3, October 2026, lists production symbols for Monday, October 19, 2026. It lists a pre-open from 6:00 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. ET for connectivity and order entry. It says there are no trading sessions on holidays. On a shortened day, the early session still comes before the core session, the core session runs from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. ET (1:15 p.m. for eligible securities), and the late session runs from 1:00 p.m. to 1:15 p.m. ET.

The Cboe FAQ session table lists select designated ETF and ETN options from 9:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. ET as regular hours, and those prints are last-sale eligible. The equity afternoon row, 4:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. ET, is not last-sale eligible. Index options keep their own rows on that table. Index morning hours are 8:15 p.m. to 9:25 a.m. ET. Index regular hours are 9:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. ET. Index curb hours are 4:15 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET. Do not apply the new equity windows to an index option.

Which orders are allowed in the new sessions?

Only limit orders are accepted in the new sessions. A market order, a stop order, or a stop-limit order is rejected at entry if it carries a morning or afternoon session mark. All Sessions stays working across sessions. RTH Only does not work in the new sessions. RTH+Curb works in regular hours and the afternoon session.

The Cboe FAQ, question 10, says market orders, stop orders, and stop-limit orders are not accepted during the morning or afternoon sessions. They are rejected at order entry if the order carries that session designation. Only limit orders are accepted. Question 2 says an All Sessions order carries over and is actionable across all sessions. An RTH Only order is not actionable in the morning or afternoon session. An RTH+Curb order is actionable in regular hours and the afternoon session. Cboe uses FIX tag 22017 for that mark.

The NYSE American fact sheet says early and late orders can be a limit day, a limit IOC, a limit day ISO, a limit IOC ISO, or a market maker quote. It lists market day, and stop market or stop limit, among the unsupported order types.

The Cboe FAQ, opening question 3, says maximum market maker quote widths are planned for sometime after the initial single-stock Global Trading Hours implementation. The date is still to be determined. Those widths will generally be $5, and an in-the-money series may be quoted as wide as the underlying if that is wider than $5. Do not assume a regular-hours spread.

Question 9 on the same FAQ says a complex order with a stock leg trades only in regular hours and the afternoon session. It does not trade in the morning session.

Which classes are eligible?

Cboe may list up to 100 equity option classes. For the preceding six calendar months, a class needs 150,000 contracts a day, a $50 billion underlying market cap, and 10 million underlying shares a day. The list is rebalanced twice a year. Read the GTH Eligible and Curb Eligible columns each session. Do not hard-code the names.

SEC Release 34-105569 says the exchange may designate up to 100 equity option classes that, for the preceding six calendar months, have average daily volume of 150,000 contracts, an underlying market capitalization of $50 billion, and underlying average daily volume of 10 million shares. The Cboe FAQ states those three thresholds as "or higher" and the same cap of 100 classes. The May 28, 2026 Cboe release says the preceding six months and the same three thresholds.

Symbol-list question 2 on the Cboe FAQ says the class list is rebalanced twice a year, from data for July 1 through December 31 and from data for January 1 through June 30. Question 3 says names added or removed are announced in advance by Exchange Notice. Question 5 says the current list is the Cboe Options underlying reference data file. A Y in the GTH Eligible column, and a Y in the Curb Eligible column, mark the name. All series in that class are eligible. The file is the Cboe Options underlying CSV on the reference data page, cone-underlying.csv. Read that file each session. Do not hard-code the names on this page.

The NYSE American fact sheet lists this production set for Monday, October 19, 2026: AAPL, AMD, AMZN, AVGO, BABA, BAC, F, GLD, GOOG, GOOGL, HOOD, INTC, IWM, META, MRVL, MSFT, MU, NFLX, NOK, NVDA, ORCL, PFE, PLTR, QQQ, SNDK, SPY, TSLA, TSM, and XLF. It marks GLD, IWM, QQQ, SPY, and XLF as names that keep trading until 4:15 p.m. in the core session, not in the late session. That list is the sheet's production list for that date. It is not a substitute for the file above.

What if the class is not eligible?

A session tag on a class that is not eligible is not rejected. The exchange accepts the order, treats it as regular hours only, and the order rests until 9:30 a.m. ET. Prints from the new sessions are not last-trade eligible and do not count toward the day's high or low. Do not use them as a stop.

The Cboe FAQ, question 3, says the order is not rejected. Cboe accepts it and treats it as regular hours only, whatever session value was sent. The extended-hours designation is ignored, and the order rests until the regular-hours open at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Question 8 says morning and afternoon trades are not last-trade eligible and do not count toward the daily high or low. The session table marks last sale eligible as no for those equity rows, and the trades carry an extended-hours "v" sale condition. Do not use those prints as the day's high, the day's low, or a stop reference.

Question 5 says an expiring single-stock option trades until 4:00 p.m. ET in regular hours and until 4:15 p.m. ET in the afternoon session on expiration day. OCC marks the close from the 4:00 p.m. ET national best bid and offer. OCC decides in the money or out of the money from the 4:00 p.m. ET close of the underlying.

What should the agent do before sending?

Read the clock in Eastern Time. Check the class on today's file. Send a limit, and set the session flag. If the path has no options session field, stop and ask. Keep the quote time, bid, and ask. On expiration day, use 4:00 p.m. ET for in the money. Do not chase a 9:30 a.m. fill with a market order.

Paste this list into the agent's instructions.

Read the clock in Eastern Time.
Check the class against today's eligibility list. Read the Cboe Options underlying file. Never hard-code the list.
Send a limit order only.
Set the session flag explicitly.
If the order path has no options session field, stop and ask.
Keep the quote time, the bid, and the ask.
On expiration day, treat 4:00 p.m. ET as the in-the-money reference.
Never chase a fill with a market order at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Don't know: stop and ask

How a given order path maps its duration codes onto these sessions.
Which session field that path sends. Cboe documents FIX tag 22017. NYSE American documents TradingSessionID, FIX tag 336. A path with neither field is a stop.
How that path treats a holiday, past the exchange facts above.
An index option order. The Cboe table lists separate index hours. This page does not test an index order.

The order check treats market, limit, stop, stop_limit, and trailing_stop as a set order type. It does not read the clock, and it does not read an eligibility list. A pass on that page does not clear a market or stop order for these windows, and it does not clear a session tag on a class that is off today's list. The kill switch guide keeps the switch outside the agent, in a flag the agent can read and cannot write. The guardrails guide keeps limits outside the agent and rejects a bad order before a person sees it.

Sources