Charles Schwab Teams Up With Cboe on S&P 500 Event-Based Options

Prediction markets have traditionally attracted retail investors with contracts tied to political and sporting events. Charles Schwab’s partnership with Cboe instead enters the market through regulated index options. The underlying Mini-S&P 500 Index, or XSP, is one-tenth the size of SPX, showing how event-based trading is gradually being incorporated into the traditional financial system.

Cboe launched Cboe Predicts on June 23, 2026, with its first contracts listed under the symbols XSPBW and XSPBX. They are already available through Interactive Brokers, while Charles Schwab plans to offer them within months. Investors wager on whether XSP will close at a specified level, with each contract paying $100 for a correct call and $0 otherwise. The products are limited to financial events and exclude politics and sports.