CME Group has announced that its Micro E-mini S&P 500 futures have surpassed 1 billion contracts traded on August 23, a milestone for the derivatives product launched three years ago.

Micro E-mini S&P 500 futures (MES) offer smaller-sized versions of our liquid benchmark E-mini contracts. They are designed to manage exposure to the 500 U.S. large-cap stocks tracked by the S&P 500 Index, widely regarded as the best single gauge of the U.S. stock market.

The Micro E-mini S&P 500 futures contract is $5 x the S&P 500 Index and has a minimum tick of 0.25 index points.

Some of the most actively traded and deeply liquid equity index products at CME Group

Paul Woolman, Global Head of Equity Index Products at CME Group, said: “At just over three years old, our Micro E-mini S&P 500 futures have become some of the most actively traded and deeply liquid equity index products at CME Group, averaging more than 1.1 million contracts traded per day. At one-tenth the size of their benchmark E-mini counterpart, these micro-sized futures allow market participants to hedge or trade with enhanced flexibility around major market-moving events by executing trading strategies more nimbly and scaling index exposure up or down.”

Bruce Schachne, Chief Commercial Officer at S&P Dow Jones Indices, commented: “The S&P 500 is widely regarded as the best single gauge of the U.S. equity market and serves as the foundation for a wide range of liquid investment vehicles around the world. S&P DJI extends its sincere congratulations to CME Group for reaching another significant market milestone, the first to cross this threshold within its complex. We are proud of the growth that we’ve seen within our indices business and look forward to continuing to provide leading index solutions across varying geographies and asset classes.”

CME Group expanded weekly options expires for Micro E-mini S&P 500 futures

CME Group enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data, empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities.

With a wide range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural products, and metals, CME Group’s futures and options on futures trading are operated through the CME Globex platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform.

Earlier this year, CME Group expanded its suite of weekly options expiries for its Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100 and S&P 500 futures, with the launch of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday Weekly options.

The new weekly options contracts complement the existing Friday Weeklies, End-of-Month, and Quarterly options on Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100 and S&P 500 futures.

The expansion of these weekly options builds on the deep liquidity established in Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100 and S&P 500 futures.