Options are one of the mankind’s oldest risk management tools, and the origin 

of their trading can be traced back to thousands of years ago. According to 

research, ancient Greeks and Phoenicians started to manage their risks in 

maritime trade by using options as early as 1200 B.C. In 580 B.C., Thales, an 

ancient Greek astronomer, predicted that a good harvest of olive in the coming 

year would lead to a surge in the demand for olive presses. Therefore, he 

signed an option contract with olive press owners, whereby he bought the right 

to use their olive presses to hedge against the risk of an expected rise in olive 

press price.

Many centuries later, options trading emerged in modern financial markets. In

1730s, amid a sweeping mania for Dutch tulips in the Europe, tulip wholesalers 

used tulip option contracts to protect themselves from risks in tulip forward 

contracts held by them. In 1872, options trading was started by Russell Sage, 

a then well-known financial economist, in the United States. Options trading,

however, was on an over-the counter (OTC) basis without effective regulation.

At that time, the dominance of OTC options trading spawned the creation of the 

Put and Call Brokers and Dealers Association.

The unified and standardized options trading were symbolized by an array of

milestone events: The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) was founded 

and launched the first standardized option contract on April 26, 1973; in that

year, the Black-Sholes-Merton option pricing theory saw breakthroughs, and 

Texas Instruments Incorporated unveiled an option pricing calculator; and Option

Clearing Corporation (OCC), a national options clearing house, was established 

in 1974. To meet the intrinsic development needs of an options market, the 

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) relaxed restrictions on options 

trading and promoted the introduction of many different commodity and financial

option products.

The establishment and successful operation of exchange-traded options 

markets—CBOE and Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)—cleared the way for 

the development of the options market in the U.S. and also served a reference

for the world’s other markets to develop options. Inspired by the success of 

the America’s options market, other developed markets and major emerging 

markets around the world followed suit, offering nearly 100 options products

covering commodities, financial instruments and securities, foreign exchange,

and crude oil.

CME and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the world’s top two hubs for crude 

oil trading, are substantially important in crude oil options. CME’s New York 

Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) initially rolled out WTI crude oil futures options 

in 1986, and ICE’s International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) introduced Brent 

crude oil futures options in 1989. According to the 2020 statistics of the Futures 

Industry Association (FIA), WTI crude oil futures options and Brent crude oil 

futures options were the two best performers by trading volume in the world’s 

markets, with an annual trading volume of 29,567,200 lots and 25,863,200 lots 

respectively.

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