BOX Exchange filed a rule change to sell a new proprietary market-data product called the One Minute Intraday Open-Close Data Report (SR-BOX-2026-10; SEC Release No. 34-105331). The big idea is simple: it’s the same “open/close + participant type” concept as BOX’s existing intraday open-close reporting, but refreshed every minute instead of every ten minutes.
The nuance matters: this is not a real-time feed and it is not consolidated across exchanges. It’s BOX-only data, delivered with a short delay, and each update is described as cumulative (so you have to treat it differently than a clean one-minute bar series).
This article is for general information and options education only. It is not financial advice, investment advice, trading advice, or a trade recommendation. Options trading involves risk and is not suitable for all investors. See the site’s Risk Disclosure.
If you want quick background on why “opening” and “closing” labels are often misunderstood, start with: What is open interest in options and why it matters and Options volume vs open interest: how to read market activity.
What happened (confirmed)
Based on BOX and SEC materials:
- BOX filed SR-BOX-2026-10 on April 23, 2026, and the SEC published the notice as Release No. 34-105331 (issued April 28, 2026).
- The notice was published in the Federal Register on May 1, 2026, with comments due May 22, 2026.
- The SEC notice indicates the Commission waived the usual 30-day operative delay, making the rule change operative upon filing.
- The proposal adds a new optional market-data product: the One Minute Intraday Open-Close Data Report, offered to both participants and non-participants.
What the one-minute open/close report is (and what it is not)
At a high level, BOX is describing a file designed for intraday reconstruction of trading activity on BOX at a higher time resolution than its existing 10-minute report.
What it is
- BOX-only trade data summarized at the option series level (strike/expiration/put-call).
- One-minute snapshots during the trading day, with distribution described as generally a few minutes after each one-minute interval (BOX’s materials describe a typical 2-5 minute delay).
- A focus on “who did what” style breakdowns: participant origin, buy/sell side, and opening vs closing categorization (with some categories further split into trade-size buckets).
What it is not
- Not a real-time market-data feed.
- Not a consolidated view of options trading across venues (it explicitly excludes other exchanges).
- Not the same thing as “real-time open interest.” Opening/closing labels can help interpret activity, but open interest is a clearing-based measure that updates after the fact.
“Cumulative” is the detail most readers miss
In BOX’s description, each intraday update is cumulative rather than a clean “just this minute” bar. Practically, that means:
- Snapshot at 10:31 contains totals for the day up to 10:31 (within the report’s logic), not only trades from 10:30:00-10:30:59.
- If you want a true one-minute increment series, you typically compute it as (snapshot at t) minus (snapshot at t-1 minute).
This is not just a data-science footnote. If you ignore the cumulative nature, it’s easy to overstate “bursts” and mis-time what actually happened.
What information is in the file (in plain English)
The report family is framed as a way to break down BOX trading activity by:
- Origin / participant type: public customer, professional customer, broker-dealer, and market maker (as defined by BOX).
- Side: buy vs sell.
- Transaction type: opening vs closing designations (helpful context, but not a directional conclusion).
- Trade-size buckets: public-customer and professional-customer activity can be bucketed by size.
For options traders, the value is mostly interpretive: it can help you answer questions like “was this venue’s activity mostly opening or mostly closing?” without having to guess from prints alone.
Pricing (confirmed)
BOX’s published pricing for the one-minute product is:
- $6,000 per month for the One Minute Intraday Open-Close subscription
- $2,500 per request per month for one-minute historical ad hoc purchases
- $1,000 per request per year for qualifying academic historical purchases
For comparison within BOX’s own open-close lineup, the published fee schedule also shows:
- $500 per month end-of-day open-close subscription
- $1,500 per month ten-minute intraday open-close subscription
What is uncertain: “priced” does not always mean “available”
One operational nuance worth keeping separate from the fee table is timing around historical ad hoc availability.
In the reviewed materials, BOX describes historical one-minute data as something it would begin offering via a separate notice. That means the rule and pricing can be effective, while operational workflows for certain historical requests may still depend on additional exchange notices or vendor availability.
Why This Matters For Options Traders
Minute-level participant-type open/close data is best viewed as higher-resolution context, not a new directional tool.
1) Better post-trade diagnostics in short-dated windows
For 0DTE and other short-dated options, a ten-minute bucket can blur what happened around:
- the opening window (and re-openings after halts),
- macro headlines,
- late-day positioning and roll-down behavior,
- the final minutes into the close.
A one-minute cadence reduces that “smearing,” which can improve post-mortems and research timelines (especially when you align the series with underlying moves, quote changes, and volatility-surface changes).
2) Cleaner separation between “new positioning” and “rotation/exit” narratives
Many retail interpretations of unusual options activity implicitly assume that “big volume = new conviction.” An open/close breakdown helps you test (or falsify) that story:
- heavy volume can be mostly closing activity (risk coming off), or
- it can be mostly opening activity (risk potentially being added), or
- it can be a mix that nets out.
Even then, keep the scope in mind: BOX-only data can be a useful venue-level diagnostic while still being an incomplete read of the overall market.
3) Useful for liquidity and execution narratives (without redefining liquidity)
The report can help explain why a contract was active on BOX during a window (participant mix, opening vs closing, size buckets). But it does not magically make a contract liquid.
Liquidity still shows up in practical terms: spreads, usable size, and the ability to enter/exit near a fair price. Treat the open/close report as an explanatory overlay, not as a substitute for a real liquidity check.
If you want to revisit the basics of volume, open interest, and why neither is a guarantee of liquidity, see Options volume vs open interest.
Common Misunderstandings
- “It’s a real-time one-minute flow feed.” It’s described as delayed and not real-time, and the snapshots are cumulative.
- “It shows the whole options market.” It’s BOX-only and explicitly excludes other venues.
- “Opening volume is the same thing as open interest.” It isn’t; open interest is calculated after clearing and depends on both sides of each trade.
- “More volume means better liquidity.” Volume can accompany liquid markets, but liquidity is ultimately about spreads, size, and execution quality.
- “This changes assignment risk.” Assignment mechanics don’t change because an exchange sells a data product. If you want a refresher on mechanics, see Options expiration, assignment, and exercise and Early assignment risk.
Bottom line
BOX’s One Minute Intraday Open-Close Data Report is best understood as a higher-resolution, venue-specific flow diagnostic. It may be valuable for research and post-trade context (especially in short-dated windows), but it is not a real-time signal, not consolidated across exchanges, and not a shortcut to directional certainty.
Sources
https://www.sec.gov/files/rules/sro/box/2026/34-105331.pdf- SEC Release No. 34-105331 (primary notice for SR-BOX-2026-10; product description, timing/operative discussion, and fee rationale).https://www.sec.gov/rules-regulations/self-regulatory-organization-rulemaking/sr-box-2026-10- SEC docket page for SR-BOX-2026-10 (official metadata; filing date and publication details).https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/05/01/2026-08470/self-regulatory-organizations-box-exchange-llc-notice-of-filing-and-immediate-effectiveness-of-a- Federal Register publication record (publication date; comment deadline; “immediate effectiveness” framing).https://boxexchange.com/assets/Notice-2026-028-April-2026-New-Report-and-Fee-Notice.pdf- BOX participant notice (exchange-side notice; operational notes and “historical later by notice” caveat).https://boxexchange.com/assets/BOX-Fee-Schedule-as-of-April-24-2026.pdf- BOX fee schedule (fee table cross-check for intraday open-close products, including the one-minute lines).https://boxoptions.com/assets/BOX-Open-Close-Spec-File.pdf- BOX Open-Close file specification (family-level field context; useful for interpreting origin/side/open-close concepts).
