Intercontinental Exchange is an overlooked, high-quality name in the financial infrastructure selloff. It runs 12 regulated exchanges and marketplaces, most notably the NYSE, and is still led by founder Jeffrey Sprecher, who built it from the struggling Continental Power Exchange bought for $1,000 in 1997. Nasdaq's passive QQQ flows have weighed on the NYSE, but the NYSE is not going anywhere and its popularity picks up during tech routs. x.com 

Cboe and MIAX stand to benefit long term as wealth passes from risk-averse generations to more risk-seeking ones. Baby boomers hold at least $93 trillion in assets, per Visa, more than Gen X and millennials combined. Barriers to entry remain substantial, since only a few exchange groups run the US listed-options market and few genuinely new operators have entered in 15 years. x.com  x.com 

Intercontinental Exchange's stock has been hurt by Jeffrey Sprecher worsening its business mix, since visionaries tend to take a view that is sometimes too long-term for public market investors. Mortgage technology could still work out, but given industry inertia it is more of a long-term call option. The MarketAxess deal is a positive, as it skews the business back toward exchanges. x.com 

The coming IPO wave led by SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic will create wealth that must flow through exchanges, brokers, wealth and alternative managers and luxury brands, still valued below peaks. Rebalancing, margin loans and estate plans run on the same rails that handled the offerings. SpaceX alone brought about $500M in underwriting fees to Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, and Nasdaq's fast-entry rule forces index buying within 15 days. In the 1990s this plumbing scaled with the money. x.com  … Show more

Cboe Global Markets is an underrated stock. Per @Kalshi_Finance, it jumped 10% premarket after extending its S&P 500 options license through 2051. x.com 

Intercontinental Exchange, CME Group and Cboe are in the first inning of a de-rating, as the rush to defend them against crypto perpetual futures competition shows. With few near-term catalysts to make them work, they are worth revisiting in 12-24 months. x.com 

Cboe Global Markets is the primary winner of the long-term boom in options trading, owning a toll booth that takes a cut of every trade. Once its platform is built, each extra transaction costs almost nothing, giving exceptional margins, and exclusive rights to products like the VIX and S&P 500 options can't be copied. More traders deepen liquidity in a network effect. It also tends to do well when markets panic, making it a good portfolio hedge. CME Group and Nasdaq are strong competitors. … Show more

Moody's, S&P Global and Deutsche Börse are moated toll booths that compound intrinsic value for decades, and their subsector just took market leadership. Chris Hohn, who owns all three, says Deutsche Börse's Eurex became winner-takes-all because liquidity attracts the best prices, and that ratings are essential since debt must eventually be refinanced and rated. These asset-light, scalable businesses turn revenue into profit with high operating leverage, and the subsector led arvy's screen. … Show more

CME, Cboe and ICE face disruption from regulated perpetual futures, which could undermine their business model. On May 29 the CFTC approved Kalshi's US Bitcoin perpetual and gave Coinbase a no-action letter for offshore perps. Perps traded about $92.9 trillion in 2025, and Kraken is launching CFTC-regulated contracts too. Markets see Cboe as most exposed, then CME and ICE; Cboe fell over 17% in a week. Stock perps could eventually challenge CME and Cboe S&P 500 products. x.com 

Nasdaq is one of the more interesting exchanges to own because, as long as markets are tech driven, companies list there for the tag-along benefits. Roughly the 10 largest US-listed companies by market cap are now on Nasdaq, with Berkshire's spot varying by day. ICE's NYSE may regain the lead someday. x.com