Cboe Global Markets, Inc.

Cboe Global Markets, Inc. is an American exchange holding company that operates markets for options, equities, futures, and foreign exchange across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, generating $4.71 billion in GAAP total revenue in fiscal 2025. The company owns the largest U.S. options exchange by volume, the third-largest U.S. equities exchange operator, a leading pan-European equities and clearing business, and the exclusive rights to list S&P 500 Index (SPX) options — the most actively traded index option complex in the world.

This is a story about a business built on a structural growth franchise — index options — that is simultaneously pruning its portfolio, refreshing its leadership, and placing a series of organic bets on what comes next. The numbers are striking: SPX options average daily volume grew 39% in 2025 to a record 4.3 million contracts, zero-days-to-expiry (0-DTE) instruments now make up over 60% of that volume, and the company converted 31 cents of every revenue dollar into GAAP operating profit. But the file turns on a more uncomfortable question: how much of this is a secular shift in how investors use options, and how much is a cyclical tailwind from a volatile world that could recede — and with it, the multiple the market is willing to pay.

The market is pricing Cboe at roughly 24 times trailing net income and 17 times trailing EBITDA — not cheap for an exchange, but not demanding if you believe the SPX complex has another decade of structural growth ahead of it. The company's own actions — divesting Canada and Australia, winding down its European derivatives platform, recruiting a new CEO and COO — suggest management sees the next chapter as one of focus rather than expansion. Whether that focus sharpens returns or narrows the opportunity set is the debate that runs through this file.