Cboe Global Markets has extended its prediction markets business into small-cap stocks, introducing binary options tied to the Russell 2000 Index.
The contracts began trading Monday, Nov. 9, under the ticker MRTBW. They join Cboe Predicts, the exchange operator’s growing collection of securities-based event contracts.
Unlike conventional options, the new products offer a straightforward proposition: whether a stock index will finish above or below a specified level.
Each contract settles at either $100 or zero. A trader predicting the Mini-Russell 2000 Index will close at or above 280 receives $100 if correct, regardless of how far the index climbs.
Shawn Creighton, director of index derivatives solutions at FTSE Russell, said in a press release, “Our longstanding partnership with Cboe has been instrumental in expanding access to innovative index-based products, and this latest development builds on that relationship by giving investors more ways to access U.S. small caps and manage risk.”
The payout is fixed, removing the need to calculate profits against the size of an index movement. Traders nevertheless risk losing their entire investment.
Contracts expire on the same or following trading day, with settlement handled by the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC).
The underlying Mini-Russell 2000 Index represents one-tenth of the Russell 2000, which tracks approximately 2,000 smaller publicly traded US companies.
Cboe expands beyond the S&P 500
Cboe’s expansion follows its June introduction of binary options tracking the S&P 500 through its Cboe Predicts platform.
Those contracts became available through Interactive Brokers, with Charles Schwab subsequently adding access. Cboe distributes its prediction products through selected retail brokerages rather than a standalone trading application.
Further products covering corporate earnings metrics are also planned, with Robinhood expected to be the first retail brokerage to offer them.
Financial prediction markets gain ground against sports
Speaking at the NEXTPredict NYC summit in October, Cboe Senior Vice President JJ Kinahan predicted that non-sports contracts would account for 75% of prediction market activity by 2029. He argued that retail participation could help attract institutional traders.
“Where you have retail, you have market makers, where you have deep markets, you’re going have institutional players,” Kinahan said.
Financial prediction markets remain considerably smaller than their sports counterparts, although trading activity is growing.
For example, between Aug. 24 and 30, Kalshi and Polymarket’s global platform recorded approximately $208m in combined economics and finance contract volume, according to DeFi Rate. Sports accounted for $3.07bn during the same period.
Cryptocurrency-related contracts, however, have attracted substantially greater interest.
Kalshi recorded roughly $6bn in cryptocurrency contract volume during July, making it the platform’s second-largest trading category behind sports, according to Pew Research Center.
Another measure of growing financial interest comes from short-term directional contracts.
Research published by ParaFi in October found that 15-minute and similar up-or-down markets generated $9.3bn in September notional volume, roughly 12 times December 2025’s level. Cryptocurrency accounted for more than 90%.
Unlike the event contracts traded on CFTC-regulated exchanges such as Kalshi and Polymarket US, Cboe’s binary options operate under Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) oversight.
Cboe’s established derivatives business offers another route into this market. Its traditional Russell 2000 options averaged approximately 85,000 contracts daily through the first three quarters of 2026.
For customers already trading index options, the new binaries offer defined payouts without requiring a conventional options strategy.