Earnings Labs

Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (CBOE)

Q3 2024 Earnings Call· Fri, Nov 1, 2024

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Thank you for standing by. My name is (Jenny), and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Cboe Global Markets Third Quarter Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Ken Hill, Treasurer and Head of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Ken Hill

Analyst

Good morning, and thank you for joining us for our third quarter earnings conference call. On the call today, Fred Tomczyk, our CEO, and Dave Howson, our Global President, will discuss our performance for the quarter and provide an update on our strategic initiatives. Then, Jill Griebenow, our Chief Financial Officer, will provide an overview of our financial results for the quarter, as well as discuss our 2024 financial outlook. Following their comments, we will open the call for Q&A. Also joining us for Q&A will be Chris Isaacson, our Chief Operating Officer. I’d like to point out that this presentation will include the use of slides. We will be showing the slides and providing commentary on each. A downloadable copy of the slide presentation is available on the Investor Relations portion of our website. During our remarks, we’ll make some forward-looking statements, which represent our current judgment on what the future may hold. And while we believe these judgments are reasonable, these forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain assumptions, risks, and uncertainties. Actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements. Please refer to our filings with the SEC for a full discussion of the factors that may affect any forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise after this conference call. During the call this morning, we will be referring to non-GAAP measures as defined and reconciled in our earnings materials. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Fred.

Fred Tomczyk

Analyst

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. I'm pleased to report on another record quarter of results for Cboe Global Markets. During the quarter, we grew net revenue 11% year-over-year to a record $532 million and adjusted diluted earnings per share rose by 8% to a record $2.22 These results were driven by strong volumes in our Derivatives franchise, specifically our proprietary index options and futures products, solid volumes across our Cash and Spot Markets, continued expansion of our Data and Access Solutions business, and steady expense management. Our Derivatives business delivered another record quarter as organic net revenue increased 13% year-over-year. We saw solid volumes across our suite of S&P 500 index option products, with third quarter ADV and the SPX contract increasing 7% year-over-year to 3.1 million contracts. We also saw strong year-over-year growth in our volatility product suite during the third quarter, as ADV increased 33% in VIX options, and 20% in VIX futures. Given the secular and cyclical tailwinds in place, we believe we're well positioned as investors continue to utilize options in their portfolios and trading strategies. Our Cash and Spot Markets category delivered another strong quarter, with revenue increasing 12% on a year-over-year basis. The contribution was broad-based, with each of our global regions posting solid growth as compared to the third quarter of 2023. Our Data and Access Solutions business continued to drive solid results, with organic net revenue increasing 6% year-over-year for the third quarter. Given the acceleration we see in the trends during the month of September, we remain optimistic in the outlook for this business as we look to further leverage our global network and ecosystem to drive growth. Overall, it was another solid quarter for both transaction and non-transaction revenues and we are well positioned as we…

Dave Howson

Analyst

Thanks, Fred. The third quarter was a strong one for our Derivatives franchise, with Cboe producing a 13% increase in net revenue on a year-over-year basis. The increase was led by strength in our proprietary products, with year-over-year volume growth of 7% in SPX options, 18% in XSP options, 20% in VIX futures, and 33% in VIX options. The Q3 results build on our strong first half trends, translating to an 11% increase in year-to-date Derivatives net revenue as compared to 2023 levels. During the quarter, investors relied on the full range of the Cboe volatility toolkit as they navigated a rising geopolitical uncertainty, varying economic data points, and election uncertainty. Perhaps the most notable event last quarter was the August the 5th yen carry trade unwind that produced one of the largest short-term volatility events since COVID and the global financial crisis. Investors rushed for downside protection in the form of VIX options. VIX options ADV of 1.2 million contracts in August was the second highest on record, trailing only February 2018. The higher volatile regime continued into September, extending demand for VIX options as VIX ADV totaled 945,000 contracts for the month, the second highest level of demand for VIX options in over two years. Similar to past election cycles, the VIX term structure is pricing in increased uncertainty as we move through next week's elections, as evidenced by the term structures backwardation. And while investors have gravitated towards the higher convexity profile that VIX options offered during bouts of volatility, SPX volumes have remained healthy. Interestingly, we have seen a variety of trading styles used based on duration, with a more balanced put to call ratio for short duration trades versus longer duration trades that favor more put protection. Zero DTE volumes registered a six-month high in…

Jill Griebenow

Analyst

Thanks, Dave. As Fred and Dave highlighted, Cboe posted a strong third quarter, with adjusted diluted earnings per share up 8% on a year-over-year basis to a record $2.22. The third quarter results continue to illustrate the complimentary and diversified nature of our business model, with solid contributions from across the Cboe ecosystem. I will provide some high-level takeaways from this quarter's operating results, before going through an assessment of the segment results. Our third quarter net revenue increased 11% versus the third quarter of 2023, to finish out a record $532 million. The growth was driven by strength in our Derivatives and Cash and Spot Markets categories, as well as solid results from our Data and Access Solutions business. Specifically, Derivatives markets produced 13% year-over-year net revenue growth in the third quarter, as our proprietary product franchise again produced the same growth. Cash and Spot Markets organic net revenues grew 12% versus the third quarter of 2023, with all geographies contributing solid year-over-year growth. Data and Access Solutions, net revenues increased 6% on an organic basis during the quarter. As Dave highlighted earlier, we saw an acceleration of activity in September, and remain confident in our ability to hit the lower end of our 7% to 10% targeted net revenue growth range for 2024. Adjusted operating expenses increased 13% to $204 million for the quarter, with the year-over-year growth driven by higher compensation-related expenses, as well as travel and promotional expenses, partially offset by a decrease in professional fees and outside services. And adjusted EBITDA of $342 million grew 7% versus the third quarter of 2023. Turning to the key drivers by segment, our press release in the appendix of our slide deck include information detailing the key metrics for our business segments, so I'll provide some highlights for…

Fred Tomczyk

Analyst

In closing, we are pleased to report another strong quarter, delivering 8% adjusted diluted earnings per share growth year-over-year. Fundamentally, our business performed very well, with year-to-date net revenue up 9%, and adjusted expense growth at 6%. As we head into the final quarter of the year, our balance sheet is strong, and we're well positioned to take advantage of opportunities as they arise. With our new strategic framework, coupled with the strong fundamentals we are seeing across our business, we are very encouraged about the opportunities ahead of us, and look forward to sharing more as we move in to 2025.

Ken Hill

Analyst

At this point, we'd be happy to take questions. We ask that you please limit your questions to one per person to allow time to get to everyone. Feel free to get back in the queue, and if time permits, we'll take a second question.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Patrick Moley with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Patrick Moley

Analyst

Yes, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. On the D&A revenue guidance, Jill, you said you expect to see a step-up in the fourth quarter that's going to get you to the low end of that 7% to 10% range. Could you maybe just elaborate on what you're seeing there and the drivers? And then is this indicative of a more sustainable step-up or acceleration in D&A revenues, or is it more so just related to timing of some of those cash collections and enterprise sales? Thanks.

Dave Howson

Analyst

Thanks very much for the question, Patrick, and well done for keeping up the tradition of being at first in the queue there. As we look back over time, as you rightly point out, we do see inflection points and timing when it comes to the recognition of certain D&A revenues under that line item there. So, that's certainly a factor that will come into play as we go forward. In terms of the confidence and the drivers for hitting the 7% to 10% guidance this year, it's really around about four categories. The first is new sales. The new sales there we talked about it on the call, 40% coming internationally there, and the pipeline and the hiring that we're doing there internationally to really continue that pipeline of sales, is where we draw confidence in terms of the new sales item. Then there's pricing, the pricing changes that we put in place earlier this year as we periodically review pricing across our franchise and to make sure we're extracting the appropriate value from products. Those impacts will be seen continuing through this year and of course into next year. Then the third area is technology investments. The results from the investments of our technology resources, freeing up from migrations over the last year, bearing fruit this year. Those investments in the first half of this year really begin to pay off again this year and into next year. I'll point out dedicated calls, that new access layer architecture for our equities venues in the United States, really performing above our expectations, and we're rolling that out through to other markets later this year and into next year. And then finally, from those technology investments and enhancements in the core platform, that allows us to have new insights generated, new data sets that really represent value for customers that they’re willing to pay for. And those data and insights allow customers to optimize their interaction with the core platform there. So, those four factors really giving that confidence as we see the short-term bringing this through into the new year where we'll see more growth.

Patrick Moley

Analyst

Great. Thanks for the color.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Ben Budish with Barclays. please go ahead.

Ben Budish

Analyst · Barclays. please go ahead.

Hi, good morning, and thank you for taking my question. I imagine in the near-term you're focused on some of the more recent opportunities, Robinhood and some of the other global brokers you've announced, I think earlier in the year that added some Cboe products. But as you think farther out, how do you think about continuing to expand that opportunity set? Are there other major brokers in the US or elsewhere that don't have access to the full suite of Cboe products? Or is the opportunity really about sort of bringing more education to that kind of big chunk of customers who are either not enabled for options or are not using them regularly? How do you think about those two different opportunity sets? Thank you.

Dave Howson

Analyst · Barclays. please go ahead.

Yes, thanks very much for the question. It's both. So, we continue to see growth in new customer acquisition. You mentioned those Asia Pacific brokers we've talked about earlier on in this year coming on board, those new customers, as we talked about, really leaning into that secular growth trend of foreign assets invested. They have appetite for access to the US capital markets. So, we're going to continue to lean into that long-term trend to deliver long-term value. We're doing that through hiring, putting boots on the ground. We're doing that through extended marketing in region and education going hand in hand there. And then secondly, when it comes to that retail brokerage platform and network you mentioned there, it's really about further penetration of those user bases, and we think we're in the early innings of adoption by users of retail brokers. When we see the facts there, we look at, for example, Robinhood, 24 million funded accounts, 4% of those trading options. So, you see a real runway there. And in general, we see retail brokers having that long runway of customers that don't utilize options, but are being educated on their benefits as an additional tool in their toolkit. And that's where we're also investing, in education and marketing, both on our own but also jointly with those retail brokers. And so, what we've seen is history is to inform us is that as our products are rolled out to retail brokers and their trading platforms mature, as we've heard from Robinhood, they have plans to continue to roll out new features throughout next year, we see durable growth there and we expect to see our products really coming to light because of the differentiation of the products themselves, really being quite a compelling additive to our customers’ portfolio as they begin to learn the attendant benefits, the simplicity of a cash-settled index option.

Ben Budish

Analyst · Barclays. please go ahead.

Alright, got it. Thanks so much, David.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Dan Fannon with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Dan Fannon

Analyst · Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning. My question is for Fred. A year ago on your first call, you talked about narrowing focus and margin improvement and capital return, and then as we sit here today, we see inorganic back on the table again and I think talking about that a little bit more. So, curious about kind of what the change in the strategic focus really was from a year ago to today, and how we should think about inorganic versus organic growth priorities and capital return going forward.

Fred Tomczyk

Analyst · Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Yes, I think relative to a year ago, if you go back, we had done a lot of acquisitions. We were doing a lot of migrations, and a lot of those acquisitions were small and were consuming a lot of the resources of the organization. So, we definitely slowed that down and took time to sort of say, well, where do we really want to go here? And as I said, we've kind of gone back. That M&A can't be the strategy. It can supplement a strategy or be additive to a strategy, but you have to have a strategy focused on organic growth. And that's what we've been trying to do. So, you've seen us get back to the Derivatives business, back into the Data and Access Solutions business, investing in our technology, et cetera. We also now have our balance sheet in a good shape. In terms of our leverage ratios are low, we're in a good position there. And I think on top of all that, our margins have stabilized and we've sort of, and we've moderated the expense growth, which is down significant year-over-year. So, we're now on a path where we're trying to drive organic growth. I've always said we were going to slow down the M&A, but I've never said we were never going to do M&A. And the only reason for bringing it up is just to keep all of our options open as you think about where we are today in terms of how we deploy capital, our debt's in good position, so we really don't see us paying down debt here. There's really not - it's not a good use of our capital. So, we're very much focused on dividends, which we increased 15%, share repurchases, investing in organic growth and considering inorganic opportunities provided they make a difference and they have a strategic and financial rationale to them, or they fit inside an area where we have a bigger strategic ambition. The example I would use there is the investment in Japanx in Japan. We do see Japan as a big market and a changing market. And when you see a big market that's undergoing a lot of changes, that usually creates opportunities for players like Cboe. And so, we're quite happy with that investment, and that's the way we kind of think about it. And so, we're just keeping all of our options open as we look forward.

Dan Fannon

Analyst · Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Understood. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Alex Kramm with UBS. Please go ahead.

Alex Kramm

Analyst · UBS. Please go ahead.

Yes. Hey, good morning, everyone. Just in terms of some of the new initiatives, maybe give us an update on the VIX options on futures. I know it's only been a couple of weeks, but obviously very limited volume so far. I know there's a lot going on in the world, but just trying to get an update where you are in terms of bringing on market participants and liquidity, and what's the feedback been so far? Thanks.

Dave Howson

Analyst · UBS. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Alex. Yes, we've had two product launches in the last couple of months, and one of them is Options on Futures. And just a reminder there, the aim there is to bring VIX optionality to non-securities customers. And because of the construct of the product itself, we're able to offer shorter-dated trading to introduce daily explorations of a VIX Options contract. So, an expanded user base and really leaning into that shorter-dated need and want of the customer base there. Variance futures another new product additive to that S&P 500 index core there to allow the pure play between implied and realized volatility. So, two additive products. Both will need time to seed, and the early signs are really good though. We've got prices on the screen. We've got customers engaging, testing out strategies and testing out the plumbing works, with a good pipeline of customers coming through. So, these will take time to season and germinate throughout the course of 2025 as customers begin to use them. We wanted to get them out there just before the election so people could see how they might be priced and how they might perform rather than expecting any great deal of trading. But really that history through this particular time period is really useful to customers to really think about how they can use them in the strategies going forward, because we've got no shortage of uncertainty coming both this year and into next year.

Alex Kramm

Analyst · UBS. Please go ahead.

Makes sense. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Alex Blostein with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Anthony Corbin

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. This is Anthony on for Alex. You mentioned pricing's role and D&A revenue acceleration. I was wondering, like what is a typical percentage increase we should be expecting across this revenue base from pricing increases? And then what are your expectations for pricing increases into 2025? Thanks.

Dave Howson

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Yes, thanks for the question there. The pricing that we've put through, it varies. We have a vast array of access pricing, both physical and logical. We have market data products packaged and bundled in different ways for different customers. So, there's really not a kind of blanket percentage increase I could point you to. It's really about assessing the relative value today versus competitor or comparable products, but really making sure we keep those in line. Maybe a better reference point for you would be that in Q3, pricing contributed around about a third of the overall growth in Q3. And as we look forward to 2025, as discussed a little bit earlier on the call, harder to really call necessarily, but we'd expect that one third pricing kind of contribution to the overall growth there. So, what does that tell you? That tells you that actually we see growth in the distribution and the runway of selling our products, rather than needing pricing to be the strategy for growth there.

Anthony Corbin

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Helpful. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Owen Lau with Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.

Owen Lau

Analyst · Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.

Good morning and thank you for taking my question. So, going back to Robinhood, I think it's an exciting partnership, but when do you expect Cboe to get more meaningful volume? You mentioned 24 million users, 4% trader options, but how big is the addressable market and is there anything Cboe can do to help drive higher volume in this channel? Thanks a lot.

Dave Howson

Analyst · Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Owen. Yes, there's certainly a few things we can do, and we've been doing them both this year, with some incremental investment towards the end of this year and into next. It's going to be a journey though. It's a journey for us. It’s a journey for Robinhood and their customer base. So, Robinhood have a new platform to roll out, which will take place throughout next year and begin to add increased functionality. More generally, that brings increased competition amongst the vibrant group of retail brokers that we have as customers. So, increased competition is a good sign there in the industry. When we think about the customer base and the runway, yes, the numbers are in front of us, 24 million funded accounts, 4% trade options today. What we're doing to help with the education, which is really, really important here, and Fred and I got to see it in physical manifestation at the Robinhood conference, as customers were eager to learn how to trade spreads, how to sell premium to generate income and have a diverse range of strategies in their portfolio. So, the education is where we're investing, both on our own and jointly with retail brokers like Robinhood and others to help get that evergreen education in the hands of the retail base so that they can really achieve their own financial literacy and financial independence. Then there's marketing. Marketing's really important, both, again, jointly and individually to really feed into that education piece, because the products are important here. The cash-settled index options product is really, really key. The simplicity of cash-settled trading bell to bell, the certainty of the European exercise, knowing that one leg of your spread won't get called away. And then there's a tax treatment, the potential for 60/40 tax treatment benefits, really helping with the economics. So, it's important we educate on that and that we market the benefits of that as well as we go through. So, where are we investing? Education, marketing and broadening out that access by putting more boots on the ground around the world to help feed what has already been a strong secular trend and one that we see continuing out into the future.

Owen Lau

Analyst · Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.

Got it. Thanks a lot.

Fred Tomczyk

Analyst · Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.

Yes. What I'd just like to add, Dave covered very well, but as they add our products and they mature their platforms, continue to grow the usage of our products, they're also - they and other brokers are going international, which feeds right into our import strategy. And then one thing that we haven't mentioned is defined outcome ETPs that are out there don't have usage of our products, but the customer doesn't have direct usage. So, if they're not going through a retail broker to directly trade our index options products. they may be using them through another product like defined outcomes, which we think is a long-term secular trend that will carry on for a long time. So, a lot of growth we see yet to come.

Chris Isaacson

Analyst · Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.

Yes, and I'll just sort of add on here for a second is just, while we're excited about the launch of index options, I think in the longer-term, their new trading platform, which is the first time they’ve brought a real sort of active trader platform to their clients, over the longer-term will carry trading and options quite a bit over time.

Owen Lau

Analyst · Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.

Thank you all.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Craig Siegenthaler with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Craig Siegenthaler

Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning, everyone. My question is on the strategic review. So, now that it's complete, how is the board thinking about divestment? And we know you shut down the spot Crypto exchange earlier this year. Are there other non-core assets that you can divest or close that would enhance margins and profits?

Fred Tomczyk

Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Look, I mean, first off, I mean, the board's very much focused as we think about it, now that we've stabilized our margins, we're very, very much focused on growth and growth into areas where we see secular trends that Cboe has core strengths that it could lean into. And I talked about their early. So, that's where the focus is right now. As Dave said, the fall strategy - this is a journey, it's not an event. And over time, as businesses evolve or the market evolves, that may or may not happen. But right now, we're very much focused on growth as opposed to divesting.

Craig Siegenthaler

Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Ashish Sabadra RBC Capital. Please go ahead.

Ashish Sabadra

Analyst

Thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to drill down further on the D&A acceleration, and wanted to better understand the plans for further expanding the dedicated cores, as well as the rollout of the Cboe Cloud. How's that coming along? Thanks.

Dave Howson

Analyst

Yes, I'll take that one. Thanks for the question. So, dedicated cores, we're excited for the growth we've seen in the US. We currently just have that rollout in US equity markets or for US equity exchanges. We'll be bringing that to Europe, to the UK first in the fourth quarter. And then in the first quarter of next year, we plan to bring that to Australia and then eventually hopefully to Japan and Canada. So, staggered rollout here, but the demand we've seen from customers and the improvements we've seen in the US, have been above our expectations. And then, what was the second part of your question?

Ashish Sabadra

Analyst

The rollout of Cboe Cloud. Thanks.

Dave Howson

Analyst

Thank you for the clarification. So, Cboe Global Cloud, we're quite excited. As mentioned in our prepared remarks, 79% of that growth is coming from outside of the US. We see more of that, and as we end this year and head into next year, we plan to invest further and greater distribution around the world to grow Cboe Global Cloud. The amount of data that folks want into the US is just continuing to grow because people want access to the US, and usually the precursor for wanting access to the US markets is wanting to get our data. So, that's why we think a lot of the growth in people Cboe Global Cloud is coming outside of the US. So, we think this bodes well, not just for D&A revenue, but for long term transaction revenue.

Ashish Sabadra

Analyst

That's great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes in the line of Kyle Voigt with KBW. Please go ahead.

Kyle Voigt

Analyst

Hi, good morning. So, introducing everyday expirations in SPX has obviously been really successful in growing the SPX volume pie, introducing new strategies and hedging opportunities for your clients. I'm just curious if you've seriously considered adding additional expirations to SPX from here in terms of intraday or multiple expirations per day. What are the operational challenges with potentially doing that, and how close could that be?

Dave Howson

Analyst

Thanks very much for the question. As we think about product development more holistically, it's about looking to simplify the complex, bringing transparency to anywhere there's opacity or any information kind of barriers, bringing OTC trading on-exchange and really allowing for a more flexible trading styles and trading patterns. And that's really looking to bring both the smaller users, every investment strategy to every wallet size, but also having a suite of products in the volatility toolkit that can really allow customers to be nimble around market cycles and volatility regimes. So, when it comes to that product development, you can see we added fixed options on futures and variance futures, which really build around that core. And when we think about where we go next, it's really driven by the customers. And the customers at this point are not asking us for an extra expiry during the day. They're looking for extra flexibility and precision that they can bring to managing that risk over time. And that's the benefit of a variance future, as well as a VIX options on a future. You can have more precision over the management of your risk profile over time. Once a day for the moment seems to be enough for the customer base. So, we don't see any compelling demand to try and add expirations during the day. But I would point out that the benefit is with a cash-settled product. Intraday expirations would be way more easy to achieve than a physically settled product, which would have attendant complexities which wouldn't allow it to go there.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from line of Bill Katz with TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Bill Katz

Analyst · TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Great. Thanks very much for taking the question. So, I've heard two themes today. One is sort of top line growth, but the second one is a fair amount of investment spending, I think you've said, boots on the ground for a bit of time as well. How should we be thinking about at least preliminary the rate of core expense growth for next year? And I noticed your EBITDA margin actually slipped a couple of percentage points both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year. So, are we close to peak margin for the business as you think about maybe the interplay between revenue and expense growth? Thank you.

Jill Griebenow

Analyst · TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Thanks for the question. I think we did mention in the prepared remarks that the third quarter expenses did trend a bit high due to some comparables from the third quarter 2023 favorability that did not recur in third quarter of 2024. So, looking at it more holistically on a year-to-date basis, very much in line with where we projected to be. And while I won't comment quite yet on 2025 guidance, we'll share more on that with you in early February, what I will remind you of is just our focus on disciplined expense management and stabilizing the margin. So, you do see our expense growth rate here in 2024. The range is 6% to 8% compared to 15% expense growth from 2023 to 2024. So, again, not going on record with a number for 2025, but just know that we continue to be focused on stabilizing that margin, and are very much aware that the operating expenses are indeed a key component to stabilizing that margin.

Bill Katz

Analyst · TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Ken Worthington with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Madeline Daleiden

Analyst · JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Hi, this is Madeline Daleiden on for Ken. Good morning and thanks for taking our question. We have a quick one on multi-listed options. The market share loss that you've been seeing 2024 to date versus 2023 comps, we think from competitions, seems to have reaccelerated in the third quarter. First, is this the correct read? And second, is there anything you can do or are doing to combat such share loss? Thank you.

Dave Howson

Analyst · JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Thanks very much. We've seen a number of new entrants into the US multi-list space over time. Those new entrants have really been focused on lower capture rate flows. And what we focus on as a business is really optimizing revenues through a balance of share and capture. And what you saw also in the numbers is a 15% increase year-over-year in that capture rate. And then when it comes to what we can do to stay and remain competitive, certainly that is a focus for us. We compete, of course, as we mentioned on pricing, with pricing dials to really fine-tune the market quality and the interaction on each one of our options of a dalliance. Secondly, there's functionality, new order types and differentiated capabilities, which draw certain types of flows to our exchanges versus others. And then finally it’s technology, and that's really been the focus this year. We mentioned it earlier in the call, the new options access architecture coming to be the options earlier in the quarter. And Chris might have a couple of things to say about that in a moment. But those technology enhancements have really benefited the platforms, but actually also opened up the capability to add new data and insights. And that's important because then customers are then able to further optimize their strategies and how they behave in the platform. And then the last thing I'll say there before passing to Chris for any thoughts is, we're investing in talent. We're investing in talent to really help us think about how we become more competitive, and we're investing some of our data and analytics, our quantitative analysts resource into assessing how we can be even more competitive there. But I will point you back to the capture increase there that we did see with the market share.

Chris Isaacson

Analyst · JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Yes. And I just add to Dave's comments on multi-listed options market share. It’s a competitive space, but we're here to compete on pricing, functionality, technology and data. We did roll out a new options access architecture on one of our four options markets. That was in mid-August. So, the results are still early. We're a couple of months in, but we're very encouraged by what we've seen on one of our exchanges thus far. We've seen better market share. We've seen a lot of efficiency of the use of the system and a lot of use of data as well. And as Dave mentioned, we're investing in talent here. We're going to use that talent to focus on data in this competitive marketplace. But we're here to win and we like our position from here.

Madeline Daleiden

Analyst · JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Great. Thank you so much.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Chris Allen with Citi. Please go ahead.

Chris Allen

Analyst · Citi. Please go ahead.

Yes. Morning, everyone. Thanks for taking the question. Just kind of following up on a couple of the prior questions, just trying to think about how much - the investment needs for growth moving forward. I mean, you obviously have a strong balance sheet, strong free cash flow, flexible balance sheet, good position there. You basically have a lot of talent that has been integrated, but you can repurpose them to drive growth. And then you're investing overseas in the international front. Just wondering, like if you could frame out like the magnitude of investment you need to drive growth from here and maybe some color just where are you investing on the talent side or internationally specifically?

Dave Howson

Analyst · Citi. Please go ahead.

Yes, thanks for the question. I think a few of us might have a couple of things to say here, but I'll kick it off. So, the investment is really in line with that strategic framework. It's into Derivatives, it's into data and access, and it's into technology. And when you look at Derivatives, some of the key strands of the growth there are the growth in retail that we've talked about earlier on the call. So, we're investing behind that. That's education, that's marketing, that's talent. We're investing on that need, that desire to access the US markets. That's the import strategy. So, that's boots on the ground, that's sales folk people, that's knowledgeable Derivatives salespeople with a network in-region, natural language speakers who can have eye level conversations with customers around the world. It's also investment on the import side in terms of breaking down any pathway barriers that might exist, whether it be access to data or whether it be legal approvals to be able to market in-region. Multi-list, we just covered that quite thoroughly in terms of where we're investing in data analytics and talent there. And then product for Derivatives, product innovation is a key thing for us. That's a marginal and opportunity cost for us, but we listen to customers and we'll forever be innovating around products and looking for new products to launch. And we've got some in the pipeline for next year that we've already talked about, whether that be the dispersion futures or other capabilities. Data and access, we've talked about that on the call as well. That's investing in analytics, investing in index capability around that defined outcome space, that embedded option space in Derivatives for our index business. We get a lot - we own about 80%, 90% of the ETFs that are listed with Cboe in the defined outcome space. And then it's looking for incremental insights that Chris talked about that. And then on the technology side, I'll hand over to Chris and maybe to Jill for any particular insights she might have.

Chris Isaacson

Analyst · Citi. Please go ahead.

Just a couple of comments here on the redeployment of resources. As mentioned in the prepared remarks, we'll finish our Canadian migration here in March. That'll be our last migration to the Cboe technology platform. We're excited about that. We've spent a fair amount of time, a lot of resources this year making that happen. We think that's worth it, but those will free up a substantial amount of them to focus on high growth areas like Derivatives and D&A going forward. And Jill can probably talk to the CapEx, but we've accelerated some CapEx, like she mentioned. And then I'll just end with data and AI. We are investing heavily in our data analytics platform, and also focused on AI, not just to drive productivity within the organization, but to explore and enhance revenue opportunities to our customers. I'll hand it to Jill.

Jill Griebenow

Analyst · Citi. Please go ahead.

Thank you. And just to wrap us up here, you correctly alluded that our balance sheet is in very strong position. We do have a lot of strategic flexibility there, which is a great position to be in. I think where we sit today, we're aiming to just allocate that capital and our resources in the most value-enhancing way, just trying to strike the right balance between investing in the future revenue growth and then optimizing our margin.

Operator

Operator

Unfortunately, we have run out of time for questions. I will now turn the conference back over to the Cboe management team for closing remarks.

Fred Tomczyk

Analyst

Thank you and thanks, everyone, for joining our call today and for your questions. I think you'll see from our tone and the questions that came to us, we are pivoting basically to get very focused away from the migration work onto investing in organic growth and very much leaning into where Cboe has core strengths, but also where we see the long-term secular trends. And we're going to continue to do that. And as we've said earlier, our balance sheet is in a great position here so that we can take advantage of opportunities as we see them. And so, we'll see you next quarter.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect.