Traders no longer accept ‘wait until the open’ as an answer – they’ve watched futures, FX, and crypto markets run 24 hours for years and they’re asking why options should be different, according to Joseph Corso, Head of Brokerage at tastytrade.
On Monday, August 10, the firm announced that it fully supports Cboe Global Trading Hours (GTH), giving eligible customers access to S&P 500 Index (SPX), Cboe Volatility Index (VIX), Mini-SPX (XSP) and Russell 2000 Index (RUT) options outside regular U.S. market hours.
The expansion comes as activity during Cboe’s overnight session has increased. According to Cboe, GTH volume recently accounted for more than 4% of total SPX options volume, up from roughly 3% several months earlier.
Cboe’s GTH session runs from 8:15 p.m. ET to 9:25 a.m. ET Sunday evening through Friday morning, while the Curb session runs from 4:15 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET Monday through Friday.
Corso said the expansion is intended to allow self-directed investors to respond to market-moving developments outside regular U.S. trading hours: “Markets don’t stop moving when the 4pm bell rings, but for too long the opportunity for retail traders did.”
He said overnight access had historically been more available to institutional market participants, while tastytrade’s futures business already provides an alternative for clients seeking extended-hours exposure: “For clients not comfortable or interested in trading that asset class, the ability to react to overnight developments – surprise rate decisions in Asia, earnings shocks, geopolitical headlines – has been a privilege reserved for institutions.”
“Supporting Cboe’s Global Trading Hours is really about supporting our self-directed retail traders and giving them the same real-time access that institutions have always had,” he added.
Corso said traders can face meaningful market developments between the close and the next day’s open: “When a Fed statement lands after hours or a market-moving event breaks overseas, sitting on your hands until 9:30am Eastern isn’t just inconvenient – it’s a real economic disadvantage.”
The GTH offering uses the same order ticket and workflow as regular trading on tastytrade’s desktop and mobile platforms. Traders can use limit orders and dedicated time-in-force options, including Global Hours and GTC Global Hours.
The expanded access covers index options used for hedging, volatility trading and macro positioning, he said. “These are the instruments professionals use to hedge, trade volatility, and express their macro views and until now, retail traders holding them overnight were flying blind between the close and the open. With overnight access, traders can adjust a hedge the exact moment their risk profile changes, not twelve hours later after the damage is done,” he said.
Corso said the growth in GTH activity reflects a shift in when market-moving information reaches investors: “Volume is following where the news already is — increasingly global and increasingly outside the 9:30-to-4:00 window.” He said the development also challenges the traditional distinction between regular and after-hours trading: “What it signals for market structure is a dismantling of the old idea that ‘regular hours’ defines ‘real’ trading,” he said.
tastytrade is also preparing for extended-session trading in single-stock options, with the company saying it aims to offer access on the first day of the broader rollout. Corso said liquidity and execution quality will be important considerations as single-stock options move into extended trading. “We’re not going to pretend that overnight liquidity looks like liquidity at 10am on Tuesday,” he said.
“Our challenge is making sure market makers show up with meaningful market depth, giving traders the transparency to understand what execution quality looks like in a thinner book, and providing the right risk tools and controls suited for a lower-liquidity environment,” Corso added.
He said tastytrade intends to be transparent about the trade-offs involved in overnight trading. “We want our traders to enter overnight sessions with realistic expectations, sound strategies, and strong tools rather than false confidence,” Corso said.
Corso said extended options access could also reduce one of the historical differences between institutional and retail participation. “For decades, ‘always-on’ market access was the barrier between professionals and everyone else – you needed a professional trading desk, not a brokerage account, to act on a 3am headline,” he said.
“It doesn’t erase every institutional edge – speed, capital, and information will always matter – but it removes one of the clearest, most literal advantages: simply being allowed to participate when something happens,” Corso added.
tastytrade’s education and financial network affiliate tastylive covers SPX trading during the GTH session on weekday mornings before the regular U.S. market open, with additional GTH programming and webinars planned.
