Index Options
Cash-settled index contracts — SPX, NDX, RUT, VIX and friends.
Index options settle in cash against the index level rather than delivering shares, and they carry their own contract roots (SPX, SPXW, XSP, NDX, RUT, VIX). They automate the same way single-leg stock options do — buy to open, sell to close — but they are a separate asset class here, because not every broker that offers stock options offers index options.
Worth knowing
Directional, single-leg only, and available only on brokers that actually carry index contracts — an index symbol sent to a Stock Options link is rejected rather than traded. Cash settlement and European-style exercise mean expiration behaves differently from a stock option; assignment risk before expiry doesn't apply the same way.