Cboe Europe Derivatives Yearly Recap and Look Ahead

Iouri Saroukhanov, Head of European Derivatives, summarises CEDX’s activities over 2022 and looks ahead to its plans for 2023.

Cboe Europe Derivatives (CEDX) is now 15 months old and in that time, we have laid the solid foundations of a brand-new derivatives ecosystem – encompassing exchange, clearing house and product set. On the latter, we have now established a truly pan-European suite of index products, comprising 20 futures and options contracts based on 10 Cboe Europe single country and pan-European equity indices.

We have also seen a steady growth in volumes, with December 2022 being our highest month on record, with 3,647 contracts traded (see chart 1). In terms of specific contracts, most of the volume in 2022 has been in the Cboe Eurozone 50 index options contract (EX50O), followed by the Cboe Eurozone 50 index future (EZ50O). See our December infographic here for further information.

CEDX Total Monthly Volumes Since Launch

Source: Cboe Global Markets

Our liquidity picture continues to improve, helped by existing participants and the addition of new members. In late November, we announced 3 new participants - Barak Capital Israel, Barak Capital NL and Tower Trading Group - demonstrating the broadening appeal of the CEDX model. 

The team also grew in 2022. As many of you know, I took over as head of European Derivatives in November, replacing Ade Cordell who has become President for Cboe’s APAC business.

Two new sales directors also joined CEDX in 2022, Elena Patimova and TaoTao Xing, bringing a diverse experience set including many years at global exchange groups. In addition to Andrei Jitariu, our senior equity derivatives product specialist, we have a talented team in place for CEDX’s next phase of growth.

Looking ahead…

As we look ahead to 2023, our plans are to further improve the liquidity picture across CEDX’s existing products, with tighter and more consistent spreads. To that end, we are developing new incentive programmes to help build sustainable volumes and expand the marketplace. We are also having extremely positive conversations with a diverse set of additional participants, including retail firms, those managing institutional flow and proprietary trading firms.

We will continue to broaden CEDX’s product set, working with participants to prioritise what they want to see. We are planning to launch single stock products in the second half of this year, subject to the necessary regulatory approvals. As many of you will be aware, Cboe operates a leading pan-European stock exchange, creating a strong foundation from which to launch CEDX’s single stock products. This exchange has experienced strong growth over the past 18 months, was the largest European stock exchange by market share for 6 out of 12 months in 2022 and accounts for around a quarter of all European equity trading.

We remain fully convinced of CEDX’s strategic proposition and the feedback from existing and prospective clients has reinforced this. We look forward to your ongoing support as we continue our journey to grow the overall derivatives market in Europe through an improved market structure and product design.