As an investor, you can invest in any type of security. This includes stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, real estate, and even stock market indexes, which provide a measure of the stock market. Traders can use them to get an idea of how investo🍬rs are feeling and how the economy is faring. But just how do you trade an index? Easy: By purchasing index futures.

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Index futures are financial contracts that obligate traders to buy or sell a financial index at a set price by a certain date. Basically, you buy or sell the index today and agree to settle the contract at an agreed-upon price at a later date in the future. Traders often use these contracts to hedge their positions or to speculate again൩st cha🐟nges in the underlying index.

There are several exchanges that offer investors index futures products. The most notable is the E-mini family of contracts. In this article, we focus on the Micro E-mini contractsജ and give you all the basic details to help you start trading.

What Are Micro E-Mini Futures?

The 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Chicago Mercantil Exchange (CME) launched Micro E-mini contracts for four major indexes on May 6, 2019. These contracts allow market participants to gain exposure to price fluctuations in a variety of indexes, such as the S&P 500, Russell 20⭕00, Dow Jones♛ 30, and Nasdaq 100 at a much lower cost than the existing E-mini futures. 

Depending on which broker you use, you can take a long or short position on markets like the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 with as little as $25 of day-trading margin per contract, offering an effective way to hedge your overall portfolio.

These contracts were extremely popular right from the start. The Micro E-mini S&P 500 futures hit a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:trading volume of almost 417,000 contracts traded on June 3, 2019. The volume on these contracts tends to be a quarter of the trading volume of their E-mini counterparts. The contracts trade from Sunday to Friday between 6 p.m. and 5 p.m. ET for almost 24 hours a day.

Micro E-Mini Futures vs. E-Mini Futures

As noted above, Micro E-minis were introduced to the market in 2019—more than 20 years after the investors were introduced to E-minis and 37 years after the CME launched the very first standard-sized S&P 500 index futures contract.

The inaugural standard index futures contract was launched in 1982. It was meant for 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:institutional investors bꦛecause of its sheer size remaining out of reach of the average retail investor: $250 times the value of th෴e index. That means if the S&P 500 hit 2,500, the market value of a full-sized futures contract was 2,500 x $250, or $625,000.

E-mini contracts were launched in 1997 when the values of the major indexes became too large for the average trader. They are priced at 1/5 of the size of a standard contract (i.e., $50 times the value of the S&P 500). This allowed many types of investors beyond just institutional ones to access these 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:alternative investments.

Micro E-mini contracts, which opened up avenues for even smaller investors, were introduced to the market at 1/10 the size of E-mini contracts.

How Do Micro E-Mini Futures Work?

Micro E-mini contracts allow investors to hedge their positions or speculate on movem🃏ents of the underlying index. For instance:

• S&P 500 index futures are designed to manage exposure to the 500 U.S. large-cap stocks tracked by the S&P 500 index. 
• The Micro E-mini Russell 2000 index futures offer exposure to the 2,000 small-cap stocks in the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Russell 3000 universe of stocks.
• You get exposure to the 30 bluechip stocks in the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) with the Micro E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average futures
• The 100 leading non-financial U.S. large-cap stocks in the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Nasdaq 100 can be accessed through an investment in Micro E-mini Nasdaq 100 futures.

As noted above, Micro E-minis a🍰re priced such that even the smallest investor can access them. They are 1/10 the size of the E-mini and 1/50 the size of the stanꦆdard- or full-sized contract.

• The Micro E-mini for the S&P 500 and the Russell 2000 is $5 times the index value
  
• The Micro E-mini contract for the Nasdaq 100 index is $2 times the index value
• The Micro E-mini contract for the Dow Jones 30 is $0.50 times the index value

Micro E-mini futures are listed on the customary💟 U.S. Equity Index futures cycle with five concurrent futures that expire against the opening 🎉index value on the third Friday of March, June, September, and December. The Dow Micro E-mini contract is an exception as it lists four months.

Below is a partial list of 🔯brokers that have enabled micro e-mini tradi꧙ng.

Examples of Micro E-Mini Futures

As noted above, the S&P 500 E-minis are priced at $50 times the value of the index when the contract expires. Since the Micro E-mini is 1/10 that value, it's priced at just $5 times the value. 

So if the S&P 500 index is 2,950, the Micro E-mini value is $14,750. That's compared to the E-mini which would be priced at $147,500.