Why do trades of options and futures typically settle faster than trades of stocks?

External question — Personal Finance Stack Exchange Author: Franck Dernoncourt Original post: https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/119733 License: CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Adaptation: HTML converted to plain text; contact email addresses removed. I read on https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=T%2B2&oldid=929203291#Application : The two-day settlement period applies to most security transactions, including stocks, bonds, municipal securities, mutual funds traded through a brokerage firm, and limited partnerships that trade on an exchange.[4] Two-day settlement has also been the convention in the off-exchange foreign exchange market well before exchanges moved to this convention. Government securities, stock options, and options on futures contracts settle on the next business day following the trade or T+1. Futures contracts themselves settle the day of the trade. Why do trades of options and futures typically settle faster than trades of stocks?

External answer — Personal Finance Stack Exchange Author: Bob Baerker Original post: https://money.stackexchange.com/a/119734 License: CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Adaptation: HTML converted to plain text; contact email addresses removed. With an equity trade, transfer of title occurs between the parties of the trade. Settlement involves not only the transfer of shares between counter parties but ownership is also recorded on the share register via a transfer agent. An option trade involves a contract created between a buyer and a seller. There is no transfer of title via a transfer agent, only a transfer of contract ownership.