Pure Volatility with Henry Schwartz, VP Market Intelligence at Cboe, Oct. 15, 2026

Henry Schwartz, Vice President and Head of Market Intelligence at Cboe, explains his team's role in observing market activity and educating participants about product usage and order flow across retail traders, market makers, and institutional managers. He discusses the VIX volatility index, noting it measures option prices from SPX and sits at around 16–17, far below crisis levels like 50 or the extreme readings during 2008. Schwartz clarifies that VIX is often mischaracterized as a pure fear gauge, as it also rises when out-of-the-money calls become expensive, and emphasizes the importance of looking at multiple VIX terms (one day, nine day, three months, one year) rather than just the standard 30-day measure.

The conversation turns to extended trading hours and the evolution toward 24-hour markets. SPX, VIX, and XSP have offered overnight global trading hours for nearly 15 years, seeing 200,000–300,000 contracts nightly with activity concentrated around U.S. economic releases at 8:30 AM. Cboe is launching 7:30 AM trading for 29 single stock and ETF options, driven partly by demand from the crypto community and supported by global liquidity providers like Citadel and Susquehanna. Schwartz notes liquidity depends heavily on the underlying markets being active.

Reflecting on market risks, Schwartz expresses concern that many current traders lack experience with severe market dislocations like 1987, 2001, 2008, or the 2020 COVID crash. He warns that assumptions about continuous markets and low slippage do not always hold, particularly in crowded trades or overheated sectors like AI stocks. Options volume has surged from 19 million contracts daily pre-COVID to 71.5 million currently, reflecting diverse strategies from outright call buying to conservative call spreads.