December Equity Index Product Review

*Through December 31, 2022

• Equity Index futures and options volume averaged 7.0 million contracts per day in December 2022 (+2% vs. Dec-2021)
• Equity Index open interest averaged 9.7 million contracts per day for the month of December 2022 (+3% vs. Dec-2021)

Bitcoin futures and options: Futures trading in December ADV was 7.5K and open interest averaged 15.2K, with LOIH averaging a record 106 for the month. Over 92K Bitcoin options have traded since their launch in early 2020. December’s average OI was 6.9K (+15% vs. Nov-22), with an average daily value of over $584M.

Micro Bitcoin futures: Since the launch in May-21, Micro Bitcoin futures have traded over 7.4M contracts. The futures are 1/10 of a bitcoin and settled to the CF Bitcoin Reference Rate. December ADV was 6K and OI averaged 12K.

Micro Bitcoin and Micro Ether options: CME Group introduced options on Micro Bitcion futures and options on Micro Ether futures starting March 28. The new options are right-sized at 1/10 of their respective tokens. Over 427K 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. Nearly 2.5M CME Group Ether futures contracts have traded since launch (equivalent to 119M ether). December ADV was 3.7K and open interest averaged 5.5K (+5% vs. Nov-22). 

Ether options: Launched September 12, Ether options offer another way to efficiently manage ether exposure at a 50x multiplier. Nearly 1.4K contracts have traded since launch, equivalent to nearly 69.9K ether. 

Learn more here:

• Landing page
• Fact card
• FAQ

Micro Ether futures: Since Micro Ether futures launched in December of 2021, over 5.1M contracts have traded. ADV in December was 9K and OI averaged 24.3K.  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 and Ether Euro futures: CME Group launched 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
• FAQ
• Fact card

Micro E-mini futures: Nearly 1.9B Micro E-mini Equity Index futures contracts have traded since launch. In December, Micro E-mini S&P 500 futures ADV was 1.2M and Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures ADV was 1.1M.  

Learn more here:

• Landing page

Micro E-mini options: CME Group launched Micro E-mini options on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 indices in 2020. Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100 options continue to gain ground against their Micro E-mini S&P 500 option counterpart in terms of volume contribution. Since launch nearly 5.6M contracts have traded, with a December ADV of 14K. 

Learn more here:

• Landing page
• FAQ

E-mini Tuesday and Thursday options: CME Group launched E-mini S&P 500 Tuesday and Thursday options April 25. The 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. December ADV was 243.1K between both contracts with over 32.7M contracts traded since launch.

Learn more here:

• Landing page

On October 3, 2022, CME Group launched E-mini Nasdaq-100 Tuesday and Thursday options. Nearly 270K contracts have traded since launch with an ADV of 4K.

Learn more here:

• Landing page
• FAQ

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. CME Group Dividend futures continue to gain momentum as new participants enter the market. S&P 500 Annual Dividend Index futures’ December ADV was 3.3K contracts with an average OI of 235.4K contracts. New participants continued to enter the market with the number of Large Open Interest Holders (LOIH) average at 101 for the month. 

Annual contracts are available on the Nasdaq-100 and Russell 2000 Indices as of April 11. Over 18.4K Russell 2000 Annual Dividend futures have traded and open interest averaged 12.5K throughout the month. Nasdaq-100 Annual Dividend futures have traded nearly 3.5K contracts with open interest averaging 2.4K throughout the month.

Learn more here:

• Landing page
• SER
• FAQ

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 23.3M ES options blocks have traded with December ADV at 66.0K contracts. NQ options became block eligible starting January 24 with a minimum block threshold of 60 contracts. Over 16.5K contracts have traded since eligibility.

AIR Total Return futures: Launched Sep-20, S&P 500 AIR Total Return futures (TRFs) offer clients a listed alternative to trading OTC swaps. Client adoption continues to gain momentum as UMR deadlines approach. ADV in December was 3.1K (+50% vs. Nov-22) and OI averaged a record 274K for the month. Russell 2000 AIR TRF is now trading alongside Russell 2000 Dividend futures.

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 have grown. The S&P 500 ESG futures contracts allow 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 Group E-mini S&P 500 ESG futures continue to experience growth, with December ADV at 2.6K (+247% vs. Nov-22) and open interest averaging 13.4K. 2022 was a record year with an ADV of 1.6K (+48% vs. 2021) and OI at 13.4K (+13% vs. 2021).

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 the 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 3.7K futures have traded.

Learn more here:

• Landing page
• FAQ
• Fact card

TOPIX futures: Launched November 21, USD-denominated TOPIX index futures provide market participants with a new way to capture benchmark Japanese equity exposure while minimizing FX risk. This is the first USD-denominated TOPIX futures contract, which complements the existing yen-denominated TOPIX contract and provides trading opportunities in different currencies. Achieve capital efficient exposure by saving on potential margin offsets against other Equity Index futures at CME Group. Traders can utilize the dynamic quanto spreading opportunities between the yen- and USD-denominated TOPIX contracts created by the JPY/USD exchange rate. Access trading through outrights electronically on CME Globex, capture the certainty of the close using Basis Trade at Index Close (BTIC), or bilaterally negotiate EFP transactions.

Learn more here:

• Landing page
• FAQ
• Fact card