Sub-dollar Activity Slows; Solid Options Volume on MEMX and MX2

Sub-dollar Activity Slows; Solid Options Volume on MEMX and MX2

Equities Exchange Highlights

October equity CADV came in at 17.3 billion shares, up 2% from September’s and down 18% year over year. The share of equity CADV in sub-dollar stocks is a useful gauge of retail risk appetite. Sub-dollar activity comes mostly from retail, and over the past two years a share near 15% has marked a risk-on environment. From October 2024 through July 2025, sub-dollar stocks traded above 15% of CADV, helping drive overall growth in consolidated volume. Since August 2025, sub-dollar share has generally run lower, with brief spikes to 15% in April 2026 and 16% in June 2026, the recent high in retail activity. Over the past four months, sub-dollar activity has ranged from 10% to 13% as retail activity softened.

In an October 14 speech to the Security Traders Association, SEC Trading and Markets Director Jamie Selway said markets will soon run 23x5 and likely move to 24x7 not long after. MEMX is preparing to offer 23x5 equity trading:

• Launch: December 6 for the 9pm to 4am ET Overnight Trading Session, subject to SIP, DTCC and listing-market readiness.
• Completed industry tests: Oct 2, Oct 16, Oct 30
• Remaining industry tests: Nov 6 (Fri) 11pm to Nov 7 (Sat) 12pm ET; Nov 20 (Fri) 11pm to Nov 21 (Sat) 12pm ET;
• Confidence test: Dec 4 (Fri) 11pm to Dec 5 (Sat) 12pm ET;
• Connectivity: No new connections, ports or membership documents required
• Order handling: Orders require a limit price in extended sessions

MEMX recently published amended SEC Rule 605 reports for August with many new execution quality statistics. The new monthly reports include a summary report grouped by S&P 500 flag, order size and order type (M or ML) and a much larger detailed report split by symbol and order type. August 2026 was the first month of reporting under new Rule 605 requirements. The amendments are the first substantive revision since the rule took effect in 2000. Reporting now extends beyond market centers to broker-dealers with 100,000 or more customer accounts, single-dealer platforms and ATSs reporting separately from their broker-dealer operators. Comparisons across reporters need care. Rule 605 covers only certain orders: orders where the customer requests special handling for execution remain excluded, and firms do not report orders executed on a not-held basis. Coverage therefore varies widely by reporter. Many ATSs, for example, report only a small share of their total volume, while retail focused venues report most of theirs. Order type, size bucket and stock tier should be matched before drawing conclusions.

On October 26, Anthropic filed its public S-1 to list shares under the symbol “ANT.” AI stock sentiment has been weak in recent months given investor worry over hyperscaler CapEx and whether frontier AI labs could ever turn a profit. Anthropic put up solid numbers: a profitable quarter, revenue growing faster than compute costs, and most of the capital it raised is still on the balance sheet. The filing showed how quickly the price of AI is falling. Anthropic said its latest model cut customer cost per task by about 40% versus the prior version, betting that cheaper tasks will drive additional usage to offset the price reductions. So far, the math has worked, with Q2 revenue up 1,368% year over year against a 300% rise in compute costs. The question now shifts to what ANT is worth, and the price range and share count are not yet set.

Options Exchange Highlights

MEMX Options

Despite softer equity volume in recent months, MEMX Options volume remains healthy. MEMX Options average daily contracts traded was 2.8 million in October, the second-best month in its history. MEMX Options market share continued to trend higher at 4.2% of total and 7.9% of regular electronic in October.

MX2 Options

MX2 Options launched on September 14th and continues to gain momentum. The exchange hit a new daily record of 360,922 contracts traded on the last day of October. MX2 market share hit 0.56% of total and 1.07% of regular electronic trading on October 27. On November 1, MX2 reduced add fees for market makers by 60% from $0.50 to $0.20 per contract in SPY, QQQ and IWM. MX2 already offers attractive customer rates for both adding and removing liquidity, and customer orders remain a core source of liquidity on the book. Reducing the market maker add fee in these products complements those rates by encouraging market makers to quote more competitively alongside customer interest. The goal is more diverse liquidity at the top of book, with greater displayed size and more time at the NBBO, benefiting every participant who trades these products with us.

Extended-hours trading in listed options began on October 19, covering five ETFs and 24 of the most active single stocks. Here are some observations:

• Volume: 604,931 contracts traded in the new sessions from October 19th to 30th (0.17% of volume in the 29 securities), including 164,936 contracts on the last day of the month (0.31% of volume in the 29 securities).
• Timing: The 7:30 to 9:25 am ET pre-open session accounted for over 93% of volume. The post-close extended-trading Curb session from 4:00pm to 4:15pm is limited to single-stocks options, as ETFs already trade during that time in the regular trading session.
• Products: SPY, QQQ, and IWM made up 74% of contracts traded in the extended trading session, with SPY alone at 41% of total. NVDA and TSLA led single-stock activity at 5% and 4% of total, respectively.

Extended volume is expected to grow over time as more domestic and overseas brokers onboard.