Cboe Plans KPI Binary Options With Robinhood as First Retail Broker

Cboe Global Markets (C67.DE ) announced on September 30, 2026, that it plans to launch a new category of binary options contracts tied to company-specific key performance indicators, with an initial rollout expected in October 2026, subject to regulatory approval. Robinhood will be the first retail broker to offer the products to its clients at launch.

The announcement was made at Robinhood’s third annual HOOD Summit in Houston, Texas. Cboe plans to initially list contracts for 23 U.S.-listed companies that it said represent some of the most actively traded U.S. stocks.

Robinhood previewed the products one day earlier. In a September 29 post on its newsroom, published from HOOD Summit 2026 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Robinhood said it is launching what it calls earnings contracts in its prediction markets hub. It described them as binary options contracts made available through Cboe that allow customers to trade on company-specific KPIs such as whether a company beats earnings, hits a revenue target, or crosses a key financial milestone. Robinhood said the contracts will require options approval and will begin rolling out to eligible customers in the coming weeks, ahead of the Q3 earnings season.

Contract Design and Payout Terms

According to disclosures in Robinhood’s post, binary KPI options are exchange-listed, cash-settled option contracts listed on an underlying KPI of an issuer. A call binary KPI option pays out if the settlement value of the underlying KPI is at or above the exercise price at expiration, while a put binary KPI option pays out if the settlement value is below the exercise price at expiration.

The settlement value is determined not by the market price of the issuer’s stock, but by whether a specific financial or operating metric reported by the issuer in an earnings-related filing submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission meets the applicable condition, the disclosures state. Each contract has a maximum payout of $1.00, and binary KPI options have a multiplier of 1 rather than the standard equity option contract multiplier of 100.

Cboe said the KPI binary options will provide investors a way to take positions on specific company metrics and corporate events through SEC-regulated products traded on its registered U.S. securities exchange. The company said this proposed framework differentiates its products from similar event-based contracts currently traded on designated contract markets, and stated its view that these securities products should be traded within the transparency, oversight and investor protections of the U.S. securities markets, including the benefits of federal preemption of state securities registration requirements. Cboe said the planned launch comes amid growing investor demand for products that are intuitive, event-driven and directly based on the companies investors follow.

Cboe will not charge fees on the KPI binary options through the end of 2026, subject to regulatory review. Robinhood said it will not charge any contract fees through the end of the year.

JJ Kinahan, Head of Retail Expansion and Alternative Investment Products at Cboe, said in Cboe’s September 30 announcement: “These KPI contracts are designed to provide exposure to key corporate metrics, giving investors a granular way to trade many of the individual components that are being tracked and driving headlines each quarter.” Kinahan said Cboe believes the contracts, as investable event contracts, will appeal to a broad spectrum of market participants, from systematic traders seeking targeted exposure to retail investors looking to better understand how KPIs can influence a company’s performance.

Steve Quirk, Chief Brokerage Officer at Robinhood, said: “Earnings contracts give retail investors another tool to inform their strategies and offer an even more precise way to trade on anticipated company KPIs.”

Clearing Registration Application

As part of the initiative, Cboe filed an application with the SEC for temporary registration of its U.S. clearinghouse, Cboe Clear U.S., LLC, as a Covered Clearing Agency. Subject to regulatory review and approval, Cboe Clear U.S. would clear the KPI contracts. The clearinghouse currently clears CFTC-regulated derivatives.

Following initial registration, Cboe Clear U.S. may pursue opportunities, subject to regulatory approval, to expand its clearing services beyond those products to support new products, potentially including tokenized binary security options. Cboe described the plan as reflecting its broader strategy to expand its U.S. clearing business into new product categories over time.

Rob Hocking, Global Head of Derivatives at Cboe, said the initiative is an example of how Cboe can leverage its strengths across listing, trading and clearing, along with its history of operating trusted, regulated markets, to help build what he called the next generation of markets and products. He said expanding Cboe’s U.S. clearing capabilities will further strengthen the company’s competitive position and broaden its ability to support new products, both traditional and non-traditional financial instruments.