NYSE American Options Add Early and Late Trading Sessions

The New York Stock Exchange, part of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE ), introduced Extended Trading Hours for options listed on NYSE American on October 19, 2026, adding trading sessions before and after the Core Trading Session for an initial group of eligible equity and ETF options, according to the exchange’s announcement. The initial group includes options overlying the macroeconomic-focused ETFs SPY, IWM and GLD and options overlying large-cap technology names including Apple, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Alphabet, Amazon and Oracle.

A new Early Trading Session operates from 7:30 AM to 9:25 AM ET and a new Late Trading Session from 4:00 PM to 4:15 PM ET, according to the exchange’s Extended Trading Hours Fact Sheet. The Core Trading Session, from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM, or 4:15 PM for eligible securities, remains unchanged. A pre-open window from 6:00 AM to 7:30 AM is open for connectivity and order entry, and no trading sessions operate on holidays. On shortened trading days, the Early Trading Session takes place before a 9:30 AM to 1:00 PM core session (1:15 PM for eligible securities), and the Late Trading Session runs from 1:00 PM to 1:15 PM.

Kevin Tyrrell, Chief Product Officer at NYSE, said extended trading hours for options “reflects market demand for investment opportunities and reliable risk management during a longer period of time.”

Session Structure and Eligible Symbols

The fact sheet lists the production eligible securities as 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. Options on ETFs designated to trade until 4:15 PM under existing NYSE American Rule 901NY Commentary.02 that are also ETH-eligible, marked in the fact sheet as GLD, IWM, QQQ, SPY and XLF, continue trading in the Core Trading Session until 4:15 PM rather than in the Late Trading Session.

Orders carry session eligibility through the TradingSessionID field (FIX Tag 336). New values 4, 5 and 6 designate the early and core sessions, the core and late sessions, and all three sessions respectively, while value 2 continues to designate the core session. Test symbols NTEST and PTEST are available in production, with NTEST available across all three sessions and PTEST across the early and core sessions.

Order types eligible in the early and late sessions are Limit Day and Limit IOC orders, routable or non-routable, Limit Day ISO, Limit IOC ISO and Market Maker Quotes. Unsupported order types include Market Day, Limit Reserve, Limit GTC, Stop Market and Stop Limit, BOLD, CUBE, Customer-to-Customer Cross, Qualified Contingent Cross, Limit GTX, Imbalance Offset, Market on Open, Limit on Open and complex orders including COA. Core-session risk controls apply with modifications to arbitrage and intrinsic value checks: the checks are not applied during the Late Trading Session, and during the Early Trading Session the Last Sale from any equity exchange serves as the reference price rather than the Primary Market Last Sale.

An option class begins its ETH opening rotation upon receipt of a two-sided quote or trade in the underlying from any national securities exchange via the securities information processor after 7:30 AM, and auction imbalance information is not disseminated for early-session or late-session auctions. NBBO protection and routing functionality apply during the extended sessions, limit order protections match the core session, and bulk quote messages are eligible for all trading sessions in ETH-eligible symbols. Market Maker and Specialist participation in the extended sessions is voluntary, but a Market Maker that quotes an assigned class during the extended sessions becomes subject to the continuous quoting obligation.

The NYSE American Options Trading Floor operates open outcry until 4:15 PM for designated issues, and ETH-eligible equity options and FLEX options may trade via open outcry through the Late Trading Session; there is no open outcry in the Early Trading Session. Firms participating in the extended sessions must hold a Letter of Guarantee from a clearing member authorized by the Options Clearing Corporation and must provide risk disclosures to customers before accepting orders. Certification testing opened August 18, 2026, with weekend testing on September 19 and October 17, 2026 and test symbols in production from September 21, 2026, ahead of the October 19 production date.

SEC Approval and Rule Framework

The launch follows the Securities and Exchange Commission’s accelerated approval of the exchange’s proposed rule change on August 28, 2026. In Release No. 34-106218 (File No. SR-NYSEAMER-2026-34), the Commission approved the proposal, as modified by Amendment No. 2, finding it consistent with Sections 6(b)(1), 6(b)(5) and 6(b)(8) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The order was issued for the Commission by the Division of Trading and Markets pursuant to delegated authority. NYSE American filed the proposal on June 5, 2026; it was published for comment in the Federal Register on June 22, 2026; the exchange filed Amendment No. 1 on July 31, 2026 and Amendment No. 2 on August 17, 2026; no comments were received.

The approval adopted new Rule 901.1NY establishing the Early and Late Trading Sessions and new Rule 901.2NY governing Extended Hours Trading, with an amendment to Rule 952NYP addressing the early-session auction process. Eligibility requires an option class to have average daily volume of 150,000 contracts, an underlying equity with a $50 billion market capitalization and underlying average daily trading volume of 10 million shares. Designated classes are capped at 100, excluding classes that another exchange already trades outside the core session.

The exchange will review eligibility semiannually following each January 1 and July 1 using the prior six months of trading statistics, with newly qualifying options able to begin extended-hours trading on February 1 and August 1. A class that stops qualifying is removed within 18 months of the determination, or earlier on at least seven days’ notice if the exchange observes limited or no market activity during the extended sessions. The exchange may also remove a class for any reason on at least 30 days’ notice, or immediately where it deems removal necessary for investor protection or the maintenance of fair and orderly markets.

Market orders are not permitted during the extended sessions. In its filing, the exchange said it expects lower liquidity, higher volatility and wider spreads during the sessions, and the new rules require ATP Holders to disclose material trading risks, including lower liquidity, high volatility, changing prices and an exaggerated effect from news announcements, before accepting customer orders for extended-hours execution.

The order states that the exchange represented it would delay the launch until Commission approval of the Options Clearing Corporation’s rule filing to clear non-ETF equity options during extended hours, that the Options Price Reporting Authority would disseminate quotes and trades on the lines used during the core session, and that clearing, settlement, exercise and expiration processes are unchanged. The Commission found the framework largely harmonizes with extended-session equity options trading it approved for Cboe Exchange on May 28, 2026 and for Nasdaq MRX on June 26, 2026.

Tyrrell said the exchange is looking ahead to “bringing the same approach to equities in December.”