The SEC approved the amended rules on August 28, published September 2. They permit eligible equity options to trade 7:30–9:25 a.m. and 4–4:15 p.m. ET. This is approval, not a verified launch announcement: the initial eligible classes and first trading day are to come through a Trader Update. Approval and amended mechanics
The detail worth taking to an implementation meeting: the early opening auction can be triggered when any national exchange disseminates either a two-sided underlying quote or a trade of any size, at or after 7:30. The core opening process instead waits for the primary market’s two-sided quote and qualifying trade.
That difference belongs in opening-state logic and replay tests, not just the session calendar. So does the five-minute 9:25–9:30 gap. Reusing a core-hours readiness predicate could leave an options process waiting after its venue has opened; weakening that predicate everywhere creates the opposite problem. More trading hours are chiefly more opportunities to discover what “market open” meant in somebody else’s code.