In 2024, IEX announced its plans to launch IEX Options, a new U.S. options exchange that will bring IEX’s suite of order protection innovations to better address the needs of market makers, pending regulatory approvals.
The proposed options exchange will be an electronic venue that will provide access to the entire multi-listed options market while relying on a pro-rata model.
Use this information hub to get access to the latest documents, track on critical dates, and sign up for email updates regarding its planned launch.
Documentation
Frequently Asked Questions
When will IEX Options begin trading?
IEX Options intends to launch at the end of Q1 2026, pending regulatory approval. IEX will provide further details concerning Member onboarding, weekend testing, and launch timelines in subsequent communications later this year.
In which data centers will IEX Options be located?
IEX Options’ Production environment will be in the NY3 Equinix facility in Secaucus, NJ. IEX Options’ Disaster Recovery environment will be in the CH4 Equinix facility in Chicago, Illinois. IEX Options additionally intends to offer latency-equalized connectivity to the Production environment from the NY3, NY4, NY5, and NY6 data centers.
What is the IEX Options market model?
IEX Options will utilize a Customer Priority, pro-rata allocation model for all options available for trading on IEX Options. Specialist and Directed Market Maker Participation Entitlements will additionally be offered (see our full FAQs for more detail). The IEX Options commercial model and associated fee schedule will be announced at a later date.
Will IEX Options have a “Signal”?
IEX Options will offer an optional handling instruction called the Options Risk Parameter (ORP), designed to mitigate the impact of adverse selection on Market Maker quotes.
The ORP, a fixed formula to be specified transparently in IEX’s rules and related Trading Alerts, will leverage certain real-time quoting activity and a proprietary mathematical model to assess the probability that the NBB or NBO in a given option series is stale.
When triggered (i.e., when the options contract price is predicted to be stale based on an observed price change in the underlying equity security, and thus likely to move), an ORP-enabled quote to buy (sell) will either be canceled or repriced down (up) to the stable price level determined by the model. ORP is only available for Market Maker quotes and can be elected by users on a quote-by-quote basis.
Note that while both the Options Risk Parameter available on IEX Options and the IEX Signal (also known as the Crumbling Quote Indicator) available on IEX’s equities exchange rely on a 350-microsecond delay mechanism, they leverage different methodologies and have different resulting behaviors. More information on the IEX Signal is available here.