CHICAGO, Aug. 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, 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."

  For more information on CME Group's Micro products, please see www.cmegroup.com/microsuite . 

  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