The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) announced on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, that it is preparing to launch a new type of options contract that allows investors to make all-or-nothing bets on the closing price of stocks and exchange-traded funds. These "binary return options" are expected to begin trading within days.
The development follows a period of growth in the U.S. options market, where exchanges are seeking new products to meet demand for event-driven trading. Kevin Tyrrell, NYSE’s chief product officer, stated that there is significant interest in newer ways to trade among both retail and institutional investors.
The initial lineup for these binary return options includes 12 underlying securities, such as Apple, Nvidia, Tesla, and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust. Unlike traditional options, which provide the right to buy or sell an asset at a set price, these contracts are cash-settled and pay either a fixed amount or nothing at expiration based on whether the asset closes above or below a specific strike price.
NYSE is also seeking approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a second product known as binary key performance indicator (KPI) options. These contracts would allow investors to trade based on specific corporate metrics rather than share price moves. Potential metrics include net sales, earnings per share, cloud-computing revenue, or vehicle production figures.
The proposed KPI options are designed as European-style contracts, meaning they can only be exercised at expiration. If approved, the contracts would pay investors either $1 or nothing depending on whether the company's reported result meets a predetermined threshold. Cboe Global Markets recently received approval for similar KPI-based contracts in partnership with Robinhood.
A person using these new tools would notice a shift from variable profit-and-loss scenarios to a binary, all-or-nothing outcome in their brokerage accounts. For the KPI-based options, investors could see a direct way to gain or lose money based on a company's fundamental performance—such as whether Tesla meets its vehicle production targets—without the direct influence of broader stock market swings. This represents a concrete change in legal rights for market participants, moving toward event-driven betting similar to prediction markets.
The expansion into KPI options sets a precedent for exchanges to monetize specific corporate data points, which could lead to increased volatility around earnings reports and financial disclosures. It links financial market outcomes directly to operational data like cloud-computing revenue or sales figures. The binary return options are scheduled to begin trading within days of the October 27 announcement, while the timeline for SEC approval of the KPI options remains pending. Consumers will likely see these options appear on trading platforms as soon as regulatory and exchange requirements are finalized.