Frequently asked questions: Options on Micro E-mini S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures

CME Group has extended the listing cycle of Micro E-mini S&P 500 Options by adding:

• Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday expiries
• Week 3 Friday expiries: changing from 2 consecutive months (excluding quarterly Mar, Jun, Sep Dec months) to instead be 6 consecutive months (inclusive of quarterly Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec months).

CME Group has extended the listing cycle of Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100 Options by adding:

• Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday expiries
• Week 3 Friday expiries: changing from 2 consecutive months (excluding quarterly Mar, Jun, Sep Dec months) to instead be 3 consecutive months (inclusive of quarterly Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec months).

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E-mini S&P 500 and E-mini Nasdaq-100 options are among the most popular options on futures contracts in the world. They have been in market since 1997 and 1999, respectively, and have provided liquidity and risk-management capabilities since their launch.

Options on Micro E-mini futures have advanced this ecosystem by allowing greater precision at a lower capital cost with these “smaller-sized” options contracts.  Similar to the differences between E-mini and Micro E-mini futures contracts, these Micro E-mini options contracts are 1/10th the size of their E-mini counterparts.

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View full Micro E-mini S&P contract specifications

View full Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100 contract specifications

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Assuming that today is March 1, 2023, the below illustrates what the listing cycle would look like. As shown, Micro E-mini options can provide flexibility and precision to participants with a variety of maturities available.

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CME Globex: Sunday 6:00 p.m. - Friday - 5:00 p.m. ET (5:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. CT) with a daily
maintenance period from 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. ET (4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. CT)

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Exercise procedures for options on Micro E-mini futures will mimic their E-mini options counterparts:

European: Exercisable only on expiration day.

Options which are in-the-money on the last day of trading are automatically exercised. A 3 p.m. CT price fixing based on the weighted average traded price fixing (symbol ESF & NQF) of the E-mini S&P 500 futures and E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures in the last 30 seconds of trading on expiration day (2:59:30 p.m.-3:00:00 p.m. CT) will be used to determine which options are in-the-money

American: An option can be exercised until 5:30pm CT on any business day that the option is traded. Option exercise results in a position in the underlying cash-settled futures contract. Please contact your broker/FCM as they may have an earlier deadline for same-day exercise.

In-the-money options, in the absence of contrarian instructions delivered to the CME Clearing by 5:30 p.m. CT on the day of expiration, are automatically exercised into expiring cash-settled futures, which settle to the SOQ calculated the morning of the third Friday of the contract month.

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The fixing price is the volume-weighted average price in E-mini S&P 500 futures (E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures), traded during the 30-second period leading up to 3:00 p.m. CT. Only outright trades of the E-mini futures in the corresponding contract month shall be included in the calculation. Spread trades involving the corresponding contract month of the E-mini futures contract shall be disregarded for the purpose of the fixing calculation.

This fixing price will be disseminated immediately using the symbol “ESF” for S&P 500 & “NQF” for Nasdaq-100.

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Micro E-mini S&P 500 & Nasdaq-100 products are part of the Micro E-mini Equity Index futures and options suite according to the CME Fee Schedule.

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No - similar to the Micro E-mini futures contracts, options volume will not count towards the current E-mini volume-based fee discounts available to members. 

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Yes, European-style Options on Micro E-mini futures are offset eligible versus their E-mini counterparts at 10:1 ratio. This can only be applied to offsetting positions. Request can be made by your clearing broker directly to the CME Clearing House.

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Delayed quotes will be available online on the CME Group website. You can also access quotes through major quote vendors.

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The Micro E-Mini S&P 500 options market data will be published on MDP 3.0 channel 323. The Micro E-Mini Nasdaq-100 options market data will be published on MDP 3.0 channel 319.

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To access CME Globex, you must have a relationship with a CME Clearing member firm.

Learn more about connecting to CME Globex

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Visit cmegroup.com/microeminioptions for the latest information. You can fill out the form on this page to stay informed of Micro E-mini product updates.

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