CME Group Announces Aug. 31 Launch of Micro E-mini Options

CHICAGO, July 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced options on its Micro E-mini S&P 500 and Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures contracts will be available for trading Aug. 31, 2020, pending regulatory review.

"Since their introduction a year ago, Micro E-mini Equity futures have benefited market participants of all types, who have used them to scale their equity index exposure up or down or more precisely hedge existing equity portfolio positions," said Tim McCourt, CME Group Global Head of Equity Index and Alternative Investment Products. "Based on the success of our micro-sized equity futures contracts and increased customer demand, we are pleased to offer options on the Micro E-mini S&P 500 and Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures. We believe this will provide our clients with even greater flexibility amid continuing economic uncertainty."

Since launching in May 2019, Micro E-mini Equity futures have rapidly developed into a  robust, liquid underlying futures market. Some highlights include:

• 300 million cumulative contracts traded across all four indices ? S&P 500, Nasdaq-100, Russell 2000 and Dow Jones Industrial Average ? including 153.4 million Micro E-mini S&P 500 and 106.2 million Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures contracts,
• 1.67 million contracts traded across all four products on average each day in 2020 through June,
• 28% of trading volume originated outside of the U.S. since launch, and
• 160,000+ total unique accounts have traded these contracts.

Options on Micro E-mini S&P 500 and Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures will be listed by and subject to the rules of CME. For more information and detailed specifications on options on Micro E-mini Equity futures, please visit www.cmegroup.com/microemini-options.

As the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) 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. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural products and metals.  The company offers futures and options on futures trading through the CME Globex® platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform.  In addition, it operates one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers, CME Clearing.  With a range of pre- and post-trade products and services underpinning the entire lifecycle of a trade, CME Group also offers optimization and reconciliation services through TriOptima, and trade processing services through Traiana.

CME Group, the Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Globex, and, E-mini are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.  CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc.  NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc.  COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. BrokerTec, EBS, TriOptima, and Traiana are trademarks of BrokerTec Europe LTD, EBS Group LTD, TriOptima AB, and Traiana, Inc., respectively. Dow Jones, Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and S&P are service and/or trademarks of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC, Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and S&P/Dow Jones Indices LLC, as the case may be, and have been licensed for use by Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 

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SOURCE CME Group