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August 30, 2021 - CME Group today announced that more than 1 billion Micro futures and options contracts have been traded to date.
"Retail participation across CME Group continued to grow during the first half of the year, and our innovative, Micro-sized products help ensure that both individual and institutional clients can even more easily access our markets going forward," said Julie Winkler, CME Group Chief Commercial Officer. "We continue to work closely with the broker community to help educate market users of all sizes on the many benefits of Micro futures trading, including deep liquidity in global benchmark products across nearly every investible asset class."
Since the launch of its first Micro contracts – Micro FX in 2009 – CME Group has rapidly expanded these offerings, creating a diverse suite of more than 20 products. Over 362 million Micro contracts have traded through the first eight months of this year alone. Other notable growth highlights include:
• The May 2019 launch of Micro E-mini Equity Index futures was the most-successful product launch in CME Group's history. Micro equity contracts represent 87% (870 million) of the cumulative 1 billion Micro contracts traded.
• Since the start of 2021, Micro Bitcoin futures, Micro WTI Crude Oil futures and – most recently– Micro Treasury Yield futures were introduced in response to strong client demand.
• Micro WTI futures have traded more than 2.1 million contracts since their July launch, marking the most successful commodities product launch in the company's history.
• Micro Bitcoin futures have traded more than 1.5 million contracts since their May launch.
"NinjaTrader is focused on increasing accessibility to the futures markets, and the popularity of Micro futures demonstrates the growing demand from self-directed investors for product innovation," said Martin Franchi, CEO of NinjaTrader Group, LLC. "These smaller, more flexible contracts have dramatically reduced the cost for new retail traders to experience the benefits of futures, and we look forward to partnering with CME Group on the continued expansion of their Micro futures contract suite."
"The smaller size of Micro products increases access to the futures and options markets, and at TradeStation we've seen strong demand from our retail clients," said John Bartleman, President of TradeStation Group, Inc. "CME Group continues to meet the needs of traders and surpassing 1 billion contracts traded is quite impressive."
"There is strong customer demand in these smaller sized products from Korea where the proportion of retail investors is high, and the active traders are increasingly interested in global derivatives trading such as Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100 and Micro WTI Crude Oil futures," said Hyun Lee, Chief Executive Officer at Kiwoom Securities Corp. "CME Group's continued expansion into these smaller-sized contracts will offer additional investment and trading opportunities to retail customers around the world."
"It is our opinion that CME Group's Micro contracts have succeeded in delivering the key benefits of position scaling and versatility, while also providing increased access to exchange-traded futures for all levels of investors," said Dan Culp, President of AMP Futures. "We look forward to being a part of the continued growth within this innovative product line at CME Group."
"CME Group's Micro contracts give investors a cost-effective way to access futures markets," said Steve Sanders, EVP of Marketing and Product Development at Interactive Brokers. "Our clients can trade futures for a fraction of the price of a standard sized futures contract alongside stocks, options, and other products from a single, integrated account. This aligns with our continued mission of providing a wide range of products at a low cost."
