Options beyond the closing bell

more flexibility, same need for discipline

AuthorAuthor

Jeyashree & Greg Jensen
October 30, 2026

 

Market update

Stocks have regained some of their momentum this week, with both tech stocks and data center–related stocks leading the recovery. The S&P 500 is up to start the week, with renewed enthusiasm about artificial intelligence, and chip stocks have helped earnings accelerate once again.

The next test is whether corporate results and guidance can support enthusiasm. We got mixed results from Microsoft and Google on Wednesday. The other big market-moving event on Wednesday came from Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh. The decision to leave interest rates unchanged, along with optimistic words about the economy and concerns about inflation, painted a mixed picture for the Fed’s path going forward.

For me, this is a week to pay attention to expectations for earnings as much as the actual results. A strong earnings report can still disappoint investors if the forecast from corporate brass falls short. For options traders, the stock’s direction is only part of the equation; the options premium paid prior to that announcement is also an important point. And with so much news arriving outside of regular trading hours Cboe’s latest change is especially timely.

What Cboe has changed

On October 19, the Chicago Board Options Exchange launched extended trading sessions for options on 24 individual stocks and five ETFs. The launch, of course, included familiar names such as Apple, NVIDIA, Tesla, Amazon, and Microsoft. The five ETFs are SPY, QQQ, IWM, GLD, and XLF.

Eligible options now have a morning session from 7:30 AM to 9:25 AM Eastern Time, Monday through Friday. Eligible stock options also have an afternoon curb session from 4:00 PM to 4:15 PM Eastern Time. ETFs that have already traded until 4:15 PM will continue to do so within their regular session.

How this helps

The first thing traders have is the ability to manage risk outside of normal market hours. If an economic report or company announcement changes an outlook before the opening bell, eligible options can offer a way to adjust a trader’s exposure sooner than waiting for the regular 9:30 AM open. This is particularly interesting when considering trades like collar trades or protective risk strategies that allow stock traders to hedge risk. It doesn’t eliminate overnight risk, but it does allow traders to potentially move before the rest of the market starts to move, once the equity markets truly open.

The next improvement from this change is the flexibility it gives investors whose workday oftentimes conflicts with regular U.S. market hours or at least makes trading inconvenient. Tradier is one of the brokers that is supporting this expansion through Cboe.

Where traders need to be careful

There are a few concerns, of course, with this new development. The first one is liquidity. A stock can have heavily traded options during the day without every strike and expiration attracting meaningful activity before the open. Fewer participants can mean wider bid-ask spreads, which might make it more difficult to get in and out of trades profitably. The second concern is reacting, in some cases, to incomplete information. Oftentimes, early price movements can reverse as investors read the guidance from corporate leaders, listen to earnings calls, or reassess an economic release from the FOMC. The effect on an option’s implied volatility can be meaningful, which makes trading options with lower levels of liquidity even more difficult. The last concern is execution. Cboe will only accept limit orders in these new extended sessions. A market order is not accepted, nor is a stop order, a stop-limit order, or any of the other types of orders normally offered during trading hours. This isn’t inherently bad; it just sometimes changes the dynamic of how your trading strategy might work.

My take on it is this, I welcome more flexibility, especially when it helps an individual investor manage an existing position. But the availability of another trading session should not necessarily be a reason to enter a trade after hours just because I can now. As always, make sure that you understand your spread, your available size, your broker’s rules, and the purpose of this adjustment. If the pricing is unattractive, waiting for the market open still may be the better decision.

For educational purposes only. Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors.

» FUTURES «

Futures markets insight: Why higher oil prices don't always mean higher gold prices

If higher oil prices drive inflation higher, shouldn't gold rise too? On Wednesday morning, oil prices climbed following renewed concerns about the supply coming out of Saudi Arabia, yet December gold futures declined. This divergence can show how two commodities and their respective futures contracts can respond differently to the same economic backdrop.

For crude oil right now, the problem is availability. Since the onset of the Iran conflict earlier this year, the biggest risk that the oil market has faced has been a disruption in the ability to receive crude oil and then process that oil into useful derivative products. In some cases, it may be that there is enough physical oil but not enough capacity to refine it. These higher prices almost always impact inflation.

Gold, on the other hand, faces a different calculation. Although many investors view gold as an inflation hedge, it also has to compete with investments that pay interest. Higher energy prices can complicate the Federal Reserve's inflation outlook, potentially keeping interest rates elevated longer than investors previously expected. We saw that this week with the commentary following the FOMC meeting from Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh. This can actually create a headwind for gold, which doesn't generate interest income like a bond would.

For futures traders, the takeaway should be to look beyond the headline that “inflation is rising” and realize that this may not be enough information to determine the impact on the underlying futures contract. The source of that inflation, the expected policy response, and market forces are all part of that equation. Although assuming all commodities should move together can be the right logical conclusion in some cases, that is not always the case. Understanding that each futures contract has its own drivers is important in making your investment thesis decision. I'm watching this week to see whether oil's strength can continue and how gold is going to respond to changes in both U.S. Treasury yields and the U.S. dollar.