Cboe’s First 2026 BCP Pre-Test Checks Chicago Backup Connectivity

Cboe Global Markets’ first 2026 business continuity and disaster recovery pre-test centered on a narrow task Saturday: giving members a chance to reach and log in to the exchange operator’s Chicago secondary site before the more demanding failover exercises scheduled for October. The September 26 window was not designed for order entry, executions or a full simulation of trading from the backup location.

Cboe is using the two pre-tests as staged preparation for its formal October 24 business continuity and disaster recovery exercise. The first session checks whether firms can establish the connections they would need in an emergency. A second pre-test on October 10 is scheduled to go further by shifting systems from Cboe’s primary Secaucus, New Jersey, site to Chicago and allowing members to test order entry and market data during the failover.

Saturday’s session was limited to connectivity and login checks

Under Cboe’s 2026 SIFMA/FIA and Regulation SCI BCP/DR test plan, secondary-site ports in Chicago were made available for BYX, BZX, EDGA and EDGX equities, along with Cboe Options, C2 Options and Cboe Futures Exchange. That is the defined scope of this pre-test, rather than every U.S. exchange or every Cboe-branded market.

For the equities and options markets, Cboe scheduled the Chicago secondary logical ports to be available from 7:30 a.m. to noon Eastern time. CFE’s window was scheduled from 6:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Central time, the same four-and-a-half-hour period. In both cases, the ports were available for connectivity and login only, with no order acceptance. Cboe said its trade-desk staff would be available during the support window to help firms troubleshoot access problems.

Participation in the pre-tests is voluntary, although Cboe says it strongly encourages firms to use the available opportunities. The operator also supports basic connectivity testing to its Chicago secondary ports outside the scheduled pre-tests, and it notes that secondary-site ports can be reached for session-level connectivity during normal trading hours. Orders submitted outside an actual disaster-recovery scenario are rejected, which keeps ordinary connectivity checks separate from a live trading environment.

That limited first step gives member firms a chance to identify network, firewall, port-mapping or session problems before the October exercises ask them to do more. Cboe’s plan says there is a corresponding secondary-data-center port for each member port in the primary data center, with connection details provided through the Cboe Customer Web Portal. A firm that cannot reliably reach the Chicago site would have little value in testing later trading functions, so connectivity is being tested first rather than bundled into the larger failover rehearsal.

October 10 adds a Secaucus-to-Chicago failover rehearsal

The second pre-test is scheduled for October 10 and is materially broader. For the Cboe equities markets, the expected timetable calls for Chicago connectivity to become available at 7:30 a.m. Eastern, the pre-open session to begin at 7:35 a.m., and Cboe to initiate the switch from Secaucus to Chicago at 8 a.m. The operator expects connectivity to be reestablished to Chicago, acting as the primary disaster-recovery site, at 8:30 a.m. Cboe says the schedule remains subject to adjustment with notice.

Unlike the September 26 session, the October 10 pre-test is intended to permit order entry after the failover. Cboe’s test plan says all symbols will be available and members connected to the secondary site will be able to submit orders and receive market data. The weekend environment is also expected to make a broader set of functions available for testing, including pre-open activity, regular-session trading, routing for equities, options and futures, post-market activity for equities and options, and futures settlement-price dissemination.

Cboe does not describe every available October 10 function as a required test item. Its plan says some functionality will be available without being verified or required by the exchange operator. That distinction keeps the exercise focused on disaster-recovery readiness while still giving firms room to check the workflows most important to their own systems. The test messaging will use October 10 as the trade date, consistent with Cboe’s normal weekend testing standards.

The pre-tests lead into the October 24 industry exercise

The two Cboe sessions are preparation for the annual industry-wide business continuity test led by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, with the Futures Industry Association leading the futures component. SIFMA says the 2026 industry test is scheduled for Saturday, October 24, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern. The program covers backup-site operations across major markets and industry utilities, with test activity spanning equities, options, futures, fixed income, settlement, payments, Treasury auctions and market data.

The broader exercise also supports the regulatory framework around operational resilience. Regulation Systems Compliance and Integrity requires covered SCI entities to maintain business continuity and disaster recovery plans, designate members or participants for scheduled functional and performance testing, and coordinate that testing on an industry- or sector-wide basis. The SEC’s guidance says the required testing must occur at least once every 12 months, while also allowing SCI entities flexibility in how they organize testing over the course of a year.

For Cboe, the September and October pre-tests create a progression rather than duplicating the formal industry exercise. September 26 isolates the most basic dependency, whether members can reach and authenticate to the Chicago backup site. October 10 is designed to add the operational handoff from Secaucus and let firms exercise trading and market-data functions from the secondary location. October 24 then places that preparedness inside a coordinated industry test involving other exchanges, markets and infrastructure providers.

SIFMA says the industry-wide backup-site testing initiative dates to 2003 and that aggregate results are disclosed after the exercise rather than individual-firm performance. For firms planning to participate this year, registration closes October 16, and final instructions are scheduled to be distributed October 19. Cboe’s next scheduled pre-test is October 10, two weeks before the formal industry session.