July Equity Index Product Review

Data through July 31, 2022

• Equity Index futures and options volume averaged 6.7 million contracts per day in July 2022 (+40% vs. Jul-21)
• Equity Index open interest averaged 9.3 million contracts per day for the month of July 2022 (+14% vs. Jul-21)

Bitcoin futures and options: Futures ADV in July was 12.3K and open interest averaged 13.7K. LOIH averaged 98 for the month indicating continued institutional interest. Over 73.2K Bitcoin options have traded since their launch in early 2020 for a notional value of nearly $9.4B. July average OI was 4.1K (+29% vs. Jun-22), an average daily value of nearly $447M.

Micro Bitcoin futures: Micro Bitcoin futures have traded over 6.3M contracts since their launch in May-21. The futures are 1/10 of a bitcoin and settled to the CF Bitcoin Reference Rate. 2022 ADV was 13K and OI averaged 20.1K.

Micro Bitcoin and Micro Ether options: On March 28, options for Micro Bitcoin futures and Micro Ether futures were introduced by CME Group. The new options are right-sized at 1/10 of their respective tokens. Over 144K contracts traded since launch across the various expiries with trades submitted from EMEA, APAC, and North America.

Learn more here:

• Landing page
• Fact card
• FAQ

Ether futures: CME Group launched Ether futures on February 8, 2021. The contract is cash-settled and based on the regulated CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate. Over 3.2M CME Ether futures contracts have traded since launch (equivalent to 88.8M ether). July ADV was 7.9K and open interest averaged 3.9K (+7% vs. Jun-22).

Micro Ether futures: Over 3.2M contracts have traded since Micro Ether futures launched in December-21. ADV in July was 25.7K and OI averaged 47K (+7% vs. Jun-22). Sized at 1/10 of one ether, the contract provides an efficient, cost-effective way to manage exposure to one of the largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Enjoy the same features of the larger Ether futures (ETH) at a fraction of the size, settled to the regulated CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate.

Bitcoin Euro & Ether Euro futures: Pending regulatory review, CME Group plans to launch Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures on August 29. The new contracts are designed to match that of their U.S.-denominated counterparts at five bitcoin or 50 ether per contract. The contracts will settle to the respective CME CF Bitcoin-Euro Reference Rate (BTCEUR_RR) and CME CF Ether-Euro Reference Rate (ETHEUR_RR).

Learn more here:

• Landing page
• Bitcoin Euro
• Ether Euro
• Cryptocurrency futures FAQ
• Fact card

Micro E-mini futures: Nearly 1.55B Micro E-mini Equity Index futures contracts have traded since launch. July ADV was 2.9M across the four indices. Micro E-mini Nasdaq futures has maintained its leading share of ADV at 1.34M in July, followed by Micro E-mini S&P 500 futures at 1.27M.

For more information on the Micro E-mini futures, please visit CME Group’s website here.

Micro E-mini options: CME Group launched Micro E-mini options on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 indices in August 2020. Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100 options continue to gain ground against their Micro E-mini S&P 500 options counterpart in terms of volume contribution. Since launch, a combined 4.6M contracts have traded, with a July ADV of 10.6.

Learn more here:

• Landing page
• FAQ

E-mini Sector Index futures: CME Group announced plans to launch six new Sector Index futures coming August 8, pending regulatory review:

• E-mini S&P Regional Banks Select Industry futures
• E-mini S&P Insurance Select Industry futures
• E-mini S&P Biotechnology Select Industry futures
• E-mini S&P Oil & Gas Exploration and Production Select Industry futures
• E-mini S&P Retail Select Industry futures
• E-mini PHLX Semiconductor Sector Index futures

The new futures will be additive to the Sector Index suite available at CME Group offering low-cost index access, capital efficiency, short sector exposure, and much more.

Learn more here:

• Landing page
• FAQ
• SER

E-mini Select Sector futures July ADV was 7.8K and OI averaged 158K.

E-mini S&P 500 ESG futures: The Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investment theme continues to gain attention and implementation as the need for capitally efficient ESG solutions has grown. The S&P 500 ESG futures contracts allows market participants to gain price exposure to an index that closely tracks the performance of the S&P 500 while adhering to ESG principles. CME E-mini S&P 500 ESG futures continue to experience significant growth, with July ADV at 513 and open interest averaging 13.4K.

E-mini S&P Europe 350 ESG futures: Launched May 2021, the new E-mini S&P Europe 350 ESG futures are cash-settled to the S&P Europe 350 ESG index. The index is Pan-European, covering developed markets across over 15 different countries. The four largest individual country weights as of April 8, 2021 are UK 23.58%, France 18.08%, Switzerland 17,16%, and Germany 14.90%. The index is based on the robust ESG index methodology, same as the one applied to S&P 500 ESG index, and is right-sized in terms of number of constituents at around 230. Since launch, nearly 3.5K futures have traded.

Learn more here::

• Landing page
• FAQ
• Fact card

Total Return futures: CME Group launched the S&P 500 Adjusted Interest Rate (AIR) Total Return futures in September 2020. July ADV was 1.6K and OI averaged 218K.

Learn more here:

• Landing page

Nikkei futures: Nikkei 225 futures ADV reached 33.6K in July and average OI was 72K for the month (+9% vs. Jun-22). In 2021, about 75% of volume was traded outside of Tokyo cash hours and more than 60% of ADV was traded before the U.S. market open (during non-U.S. hours). Nikkei 225 futures can be transacted through the MOS (Mutual Offset System).

E-mini S&P 500 Tuesday and Thursday options: CME Group launched E-mini S&P 500 Tuesday and Thursday options on April 25. The new options offer more opportunities to manage short-term equity exposure with more choices to trade throughout the week. The contracts complement the existing suite of Quarterly, End-of-Month, and Monday, Wednesday, and Friday Weekly options. These options settle into liquidity E-mini S&P 500 futures, which have averaged nearly 2M contracts daily. July ADV was 134.4K between both contracts with over 8.6M contracts traded since launch. Learn more here.

S&P 500 Dividend futures: Equity Index Dividend futures provide an efficient tool to hedge or express a view on the U.S. dividend market, regardless of the price movement of the benchmark indices. Quarterly and annual contracts are available on the S&P 500 Index. July ADV was 3.7K and open interest averaged 229K (+27% vs. Jun-22). Annual contracts are available on the Nasdaq-100 and Russell 2000 Indices as of April 11.

Learn more here:

• Landing Page
• FAQ
• SER

E-mini S&P 500 option blocks: Participation in ES options blocks continues to grow, allowing market participants to execute large trades with greater efficiency. Over 16.3M ES options blocks have traded, with July ADV at 62.5K contracts. Non-U.S. hours ADV averaged 6% of volume throughout the month.