Cboe Global Markets today announced the results of its inaugural survey of European retail investors, conducted jointly by Cboe Europe Derivatives (CEDX), Cboe’s pan-European equity derivatives marketplace, and The Options Institute, Cboe’s education arm.

Overall, the survey reveals a strong interest among European retail investors in utilising exchange-traded options for risk management along with a clear need for education, highlighting an opportunity for the industry to address this demand.

CEDX has been working with The Options Institute on ways to bring more awareness of financial markets and derivatives products to the European retail investor community and together plan to offer a comprehensive suite of educational resources in Europe from early 2025.

The survey aimed to gain insights into current retail investing preferences in Europe, attitudes towards options products and levels of interest in educational resources, to help inform The Options Institute’s delivery of services in the region and empower a new generation of investors. Conducted amid ongoing efforts by European policymakers to encourage more retail investment in the region’s capital markets, the survey results clearly indicate that exchange-traded equity options can play an important role in attracting greater retail participation.

Survey participants were segmented into three categories: current derivatives users; participants interested in derivatives but who do not currently trade them (derivatives prospects) and participants that do not have a desire to trade derivatives.

Key findings of the survey include:

Derivatives Users:

• 62% are interested in trading options contracts with stocks/shares as the underlying;
• 61% said they would take an advanced course to learn more about options;
• 47% said that capital protection is their top strategy for options, followed by hedging (35%) and risk reversals (33%);
• 41% said they would seek education from exchanges.

Derivatives Prospects:

• 54% of those aware of options are interested in trading them with stocks/shares as the underlying, though 66% said that they would need more basic financial education before taking that interest any further;
• 64% said they wish they had more dependable sources of education around investing;
• 39% said they would seek education from exchanges;
• 61% said that understanding options trading strategies is the options topic they are most interested in learning about, followed by risk and portfolio management (53%) and options basics (45%).

The European retail investor survey, and follow-up focus group discussions, were conducted between June and August of 2024. The participants included 5,058 retail traders across France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom.