What are SPX and SPY options?

SPX is the S&P 500 index, about 500 large US companies weighted by market value. You cannot buy the index, but you can trade options on it, listed by Cboe. SPY is the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, a fund that holds those stocks and trades like a share at roughly a tenth of the index level. Its options are listed on several US options exchanges.

Both contracts use a $100 multiplier, so a premium of 2.00 costs $200. The difference in size comes from the underlying. In Cboe's own example, with the S&P 500 at 6,500, one SPX contract represents about $650,000 of index value and one SPY contract about $65,000. For how options work, see options trading for beginners and call vs put; for trading SPY shares, see SPY day trading.

SPX vs SPY options: the key differences at a glance

Based on Cboe's product specifications as of October 2026:

  • Underlying: SPX is the S&P 500 index. SPY is an ETF that holds the S&P 500 stocks.
  • Size: about 10 to 1. One SPX contract is roughly ten SPY contracts in market exposure.
  • Exercise style: SPX is European, exercised only at expiration. SPY is American, exercisable on any business day, so a short SPY option can be assigned early.
  • Settlement: SPX pays cash. An exercised SPY option delivers 100 shares per contract.
  • AM or PM: standard monthly SPX options are AM-settled; SPX Weeklys and end-of-month options (root SPXW) are PM-settled. SPY options are PM-settled.
  • Expirations: both list one every weekday, Monday through Friday, plus monthly and end-of-month dates.
  • Trading hours: SPX trades 9:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. ET plus a curb session and overnight Global Trading Hours. SPY options trade 9:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. ET only.
  • US taxes: SPX may qualify for Section 1256 60/40 treatment. SPY options follow the ordinary capital gains rules.
  • Price steps: SPY options quote in $0.01 at every price. SPX quotes in $0.05 below 3.00 and $0.10 above, which is $5 or $10 per contract.
  • Dividends: SPY pays dividends, which can lead holders of in-the-money calls to exercise early. SPX options carry no dividend-related exercise.

Turn your phone sideways to read the drawing. Tap to close.

A hand-drawn comparison card, SPX against SPY: size with the S&P 500 at 6,500, about $650,000 against about $65,000; exercise, European at expiration only against American on any business day; settlement, cash against 100 shares per contract; price step, $0.05 or $0.10 against $0.01; US tax, may get 60/40 against ordinary rules, a line that applies to US taxpayers only.

European vs American, cash vs shares: why settlement matters

An American-style SPY option can be exercised on any business day. If you sell one, you can be assigned before expiration, most often on short calls just before an ex-dividend date. At expiration, an SPY option that is in the money by $0.01 or more is exercised automatically unless its holder says otherwise, and holders have until 5:30 p.m. ET to decide while SPY keeps trading after the 4:00 p.m. close. A seller may only learn after the close whether they now hold or owe shares.

Cash settlement removes that. An SPX option is exercised only at expiration and pays the difference between the settlement value and the strike, times $100, in cash on the next business day. No shares, no early assignment. Cboe's own illustration shows the contrast: a long SPY call that is exercised needs cash for 100 shares, tens of thousands of dollars, and leaves a share position the next morning.

For a buyer who always closes before expiration, the difference is smaller. For anyone who sells options, or might hold one to the close, it is the main one. Our 0DTE options guide covers pin risk on expiration day in more detail.

AM vs PM settlement: SPX vs SPXW

SPX comes in two kinds on the same option chain. The traditional monthly contracts, root symbol SPX, are AM-settled. They stop trading on the business day before expiration, usually a Thursday, and their settlement value is calculated from the opening prices of the index stocks on expiration morning, usually the third Friday. Whatever happens overnight and at the open decides the outcome, and you cannot trade out once Thursday's session ends.

SPX Weeklys and end-of-month contracts, root SPXW, are PM-settled. They trade until 4:00 p.m. ET on expiration day and settle to the S&P 500's closing value. The daily same-day contracts are SPXW. When you open an SPX chain, check the root of a contract before you trade it, because the same strike and month can exist in both kinds.

SPX and SPY options trading hours in New York and Riyadh time

Riyadh times assume US daylight time, which ends on November 1, 2026; after that, add one hour. Holidays are on our US stock market hours page.

Cboe describes the overnight session as nearly 24-hour trading five days a week, and from the Gulf it covers most of the working day. Activity overnight is typically lighter than in the regular session, so check the bid-ask spread before trading in it.

  • SPY options: 9:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. ET, which is 4:30 to 11:15 p.m. Riyadh (5:30 p.m. to 12:15 a.m. from November 1). They trade 15 minutes past the 4:00 p.m. stock close, but not overnight.
  • SPX options, regular hours: 9:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. ET, the same window. Expiring SPXW contracts stop at 4:00 p.m. ET, which is 11:00 p.m. Riyadh, or midnight from November 1.
  • SPX curb session: 4:15 to 5:00 p.m. ET, 11:15 p.m. to midnight Riyadh (12:15 to 1:00 a.m. from November 1).
  • SPX Global Trading Hours: 8:15 p.m. to 9:25 a.m. ET, which is 3:15 a.m. to 4:25 p.m. Riyadh (4:15 a.m. to 5:25 p.m. from November 1). XSP has the same curb and overnight sessions.

Turn your phone sideways to read the drawing. Tap to close.

A hand-drawn timeline in New York time, Monday to Friday: SPX options trade overnight in Global Trading Hours from 8:15 p.m. to 9:25 a.m., in regular hours from 9:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. and in the curb session from 4:15 to 5:00 p.m.; SPY options trade only from 9:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., with no overnight session. A red dashed line marks expiring SPXW contracts stopping at 4:00 p.m.; XSP has the same curb and overnight sessions.

Taxes: Section 1256 and the 60/40 rule (US taxpayers only)

For US taxpayers, SPX options are generally Section 1256 contracts. The IRS treats options on a broad-based stock index, such as the S&P 500, as nonequity options. Gains and losses on them count as 60% long-term and 40% short-term however long the position was held, and positions still open at year-end are treated as sold at fair market value on the last business day of the year. Cboe says the same treatment applies to XSP.

SPY options are equity options, so they follow the ordinary rules: a position held one year or less produces short-term gains or losses. For a trader who holds for minutes or days, that is the core difference: under 60/40, part of each SPX gain is treated as long-term even on a same-day trade.

This applies only to US taxpayers, and the details depend on each person's situation. Readers in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf or anywhere else should check the rules where they are taxed with a qualified advisor. Nothing here is tax advice.

Liquidity, spreads and contract size

SPX options averaged 3.9 million contracts a day in 2025, according to Cboe, with same-day contracts making up 59% of that. SPY options are listed on several exchanges. For both, liquidity varies by strike and time of day: spreads tend to be widest at strikes far from the current price and, for SPX, in the overnight session.

Compare costs per unit of exposure, not per contract. SPY quotes in pennies, so its spread can be as small as $0.01, or $1 per contract. SPX's minimum step is $0.05 or $0.10, which is $5 or $10 per contract, but one SPX contract equals about ten SPY contracts. The useful number is the spread as a share of the premium, at the strike and time you actually trade.

Size is the bigger issue for most individuals. In a hypothetical example, an SPX option priced at 15.00 costs $1,500 for one contract. The same exposure in SPY or XSP comes in contracts around a tenth of that, which makes it possible to size in smaller steps.

What is XSP, the mini SPX?

XSP options are on the Mini-SPX index, one-tenth of the S&P 500's value, with the same $100 multiplier. One XSP contract is therefore about the size of one SPY contract, roughly $65,000 of exposure with the index at 6,500, while keeping the SPX features: European exercise, cash settlement to one-tenth of the S&P 500's official close, expirations every weekday, curb and overnight sessions, and, per Cboe, Section 1256 treatment for US taxpayers. Expiring XSP contracts stop trading at 4:00 p.m. ET.

The trade-off to check is activity. A smaller contract helps only if it trades actively at your strikes and times, so compare XSP's spread with SPY's before you choose.

One detail trips people up: XSP strikes follow the index divided by ten, not SPY's price. SPY and XSP sit close together but are not equal, so an XSP 650 strike is not the same level as an SPY 650 strike.

SPX or SPY for a small account?

The answer depends on your account, your broker and whether you sell options, so treat these as questions to work through, not a recommendation:

  • Can one contract fit your risk per trade? With a $10,000 account and 1% risk per trade, the budget is $100. In a hypothetical example, a near-the-money same-day SPX option at 15.00 costs $1,500, fifteen times the budget. An SPY or XSP option at 1.50 costs $150, still over it. Sometimes the honest answer is no trade. The position size calculator helps with the math.
  • Will you hold to expiration? If you do, SPY's share delivery can call for about $65,000 of buying power per contract at a $650 price. Cash-settled SPX and XSP avoid that.
  • Will you sell options? Early assignment and pin risk make SPY harder to manage for sellers; SPX and XSP have neither.
  • Are you a US taxpayer? If so, the 60/40 rule may favor SPX and XSP. If not, it may not apply to you at all.
  • Does your broker offer it? Not every broker offers index options or the overnight session. Check that your broker, licensed by your country's regulator, offers the product and the hours you need.

How the same chart signal maps to SPX, SPY or XSP

Many traders chart SPY even when they trade SPX, because SPY is a traded security with its own volume while the index itself does not trade. A level on SPY maps to SPX at roughly ten times the price, but not exactly, and the ratio drifts over time. Convert with the live ratio at the moment of the signal: SPX divided by SPY.

A hypothetical: SPY is at $650.00 and SPX at 6,520.00, a ratio of 10.03. A long signal on SPY's 5-minute chart gives entry $650.20, stop $649.60 and target $651.50. On SPX that is about 6,521.5, 6,515.5 and 6,534.5: a 6-point stop and a 13-point target. For XSP, divide the SPX levels by ten. Whichever contract you trade, exit when the underlying hits the stop, the target or your time stop; the option's own price is not the signal. The same mapping works for options scalping on 5-minute signals and for swing trading options on 1-hour signals, and picking the strike is covered in how to choose a strike price.

UpTickFlow, our invite-only TradingView indicator, works on that principle. It runs on the chart of the underlying, such as SPY, and draws an entry, a stop and a target before the trade, with signals that appear after the candle closes and do not repaint. It does not read options data, choose a strike or expiry, or place trades, and it was not built or tested specifically for options; the contract, size and exits are yours to decide. More in how to trade options with TradingView and on the UpTickFlow home page.