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The CBOE, or Chicago Board Options Exchange, was founded in 1973 as an exchange devoted entirely to trading options contracts. The growth of the CBOT has paralleled the increasing volume of options trading generally. In the earliest days, the only options contracts traded on the CBOE were on individual stocks. Then Black-Scholes was adopted and the SEC asked the CBOE to stop expanding the number of contracts traded in the booming options market until the stock option itself passed review. In the early 1980s, the CBOE introduced options on stock indices, such as the S&P 500. When the stock market crashed in 1987, interest in options declined, so the CBOE diversified into interest rate options. In June 2003, the CBOE introduced a hybrid trading system that combines features of screen-based and open-outcry trading. Today, the CBOE offers options on several hundred different assets, and CBOE volume averages well over one million contracts traded each day. |
