Cboe Tweaks AIM Fees and Adds a New Top VIP Tier

Cboe has amended its options fee schedule in a filing published in the Federal Register on May 14, making targeted changes to Automated Improvement Mechanism, or AIM, pricing and to the exchange’s customer-volume rebate ladder. The filing was effective on May 1.

On the AIM side, Cboe introduced a new fee code for Market-Maker simple AIM contra orders in equity, ETF, and ETN options, setting the charge at $0.07 per contract. It also added a $0.20 per-contract surcharge for that same order type in VIX options. Elsewhere in the schedule, the exchange cut the fee attached to a non-customer electronic or AIM order category in Russell 2000 Index options to $0.55 from $0.65 per contract.

The other notable change is the addition of a new Tier 5 in Cboe’s Customer Volume Incentive Program and related Affiliated Volume Plan. That new tier applies above 5.00% qualifying volume and comes with updated rebate rates for simple and complex customer orders.

This is the kind of filing that mainly affects routing decisions, liquidity provision, and auction economics rather than headline product access. But those cost changes can still feed through into how aggressively firms quote and where they prefer to send flow.

Why it matters

For active options traders, exchange fee changes can influence displayed liquidity and execution quality even when the direct charges fall on market makers or routing firms.

What to watch next

Watch whether the new incentives shift more customer flow into Cboe AIM auctions and whether market makers change their appetite for contra participation in VIX versus non-VIX products.