Cboe's Proposed XSPBX Fee Codes Make Order Capacity Part of the Cost Record

Cboe's Proposed XSPBX Fee Codes Make Order Capacity Part of the Cost Record

On 19 August 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission published notice that Cboe had filed a proposed XSP binary-option fee-schedule change a week earlier. The filing adds a detail that can disappear from a compact options ticket: the exchange fee depends on more than the quoted premium.

For a Cboe XSPBX contract, the proposed schedule places a 0.50 premium in the same price band for several order groups. The charge still differs by order capacity and, for a market maker, by whether liquidity is taken or added. A price field alone therefore cannot identify the proposed exchange fee.

Monday, 31 August 2026 was the latest completed U.S. options-market session when this article was prepared on Tuesday, 1 September in Australia/Brisbane. This article examines the fee filing and contract record. It does not report Monday prices, options volume, open interest, dealer positioning, implied volatility, broker charges or a trade outcome.

The SEC notice sets fee bands by premium

The SEC notice describes proposed standard transaction fees for Customer-capacity orders in the XSPBX series. The proposed standard rates apply per contract side, and the notice says transaction fees are charged to the Cboe Options executing firm on the input record.

The D4 row puts a Customer 0.50 premium in a proposed 30-cent per-contract-side band. It does not turn a 0.50 premium into a 30-cent contract price. Cboe's binary contract specification states that premiums are quoted in decimals and that the contract multiplier is $100. Price and fee remain separate ticket fields.

Capacity changes the proposed fee at the same premium

The SEC filing also proposes price bands for a Non-Customer, Non-Market-Maker group and for electronic Market-Maker orders that take liquidity. The rows have the same four premium intervals, but higher listed fees at each interval. Cboe separately proposes a five-cent charge for electronic Market-Maker orders that add liquidity and a 15-cent charge for manual Market-Maker orders.

That structure makes capacity and liquidity role part of the cost record. A ticket that stores only the symbol and premium can identify the price band but cannot choose between D4, N4, H4, HA and HM.

One fictional fee-code lookup shows the gap

Consider two fictional one-contract XSPBX executions, each with a 0.50 quoted premium. The example applies only the proposed Cboe exchange fees in the SEC notice. It does not assume that either order exists, that it can be executed, or that an account receives a particular broker charge.

The calculated difference is five cents per contract side:

$0.35 - $0.30 = $0.05

The premium did not select a unique fee by itself. Capacity supplied the missing field. If the Market-Maker order instead added liquidity, the filing's HA row would call for a different fee again. The example is a fee-code lookup, not a net-profit calculation and not an estimate of a market result.

A fee code is not an all-in customer cost

The SEC notice says Cboe charges transaction fees to the executing firm on the input record. That is a statement about the exchange's fee path. It does not identify how a particular broker presents, passes through, absorbs or adds charges for a customer.

The filing also says the listed standard rates apply per contract side. A record needs the side count as well as the applicable row before a fee total can be calculated. The schedule is proposed, so a current fee review should return to the exchange's live fee schedule and the broker's current documentation.

XSPBX still needs a complete contract label

The proposed fee bands in the notice name XSPBX. Cboe's contract specification labels XSPBX as the AM series and XSPBW as the PM series. The specification also states the binary contract's $100 multiplier and $100 exercise settlement amount. Those contract terms describe the series. They do not substitute for the capacity and liquidity fields in the proposed fee schedule.

This fee notice is not a quote, a volume report, a confirmation of a particular account's access or a directional market signal. It is a current rule record with defined fee-code conditions.

The decision rule is to store the fields that select the fee

For a fee review, record the series symbol, quoted premium, order capacity, liquidity role, contract-side count, proposed exchange fee and broker charge as separate fields. The premium identifies a fee band. Capacity and liquidity role identify the row. The final customer cost requires current broker evidence.

This article is general education, not personal financial, legal or tax advice. Options are complex and can involve substantial loss. Verify current exchange rules, product status and broker charges before relying on any contract detail.

Related OMP reading

• A $100 Binary Payout Is Not a $100 Profit examines the separate premium and settlement fields within a binary contract.
• Cash-Settled FLEX ETF Options Require Three Separate Checks explains why settlement labels need their own contract record.
• July Options Contracts and Premium Dollars Are Three Different Units separates contract counts, reported premium dollars and economic exposure.

Primary sources

• SEC Release No. 34-106161, SR-CBOE-2026-071, dated 19 August 2026.
• Cboe Mini-S&P 500 Index Binary Options Contract Specifications, checked 1 September 2026.
• Cboe U.S. options hours and 2026 holiday schedule, checked 1 September 2026.