E-minis are

futures contract In finance, a futures contract (sometimes called a futures) is a standardized legal contract to buy or sell something at a predetermined price for delivery at a specified time in the future, between parties not yet known to each other. The asset ...

s that represent a fraction of the value of standard futures. They are traded primarily on the

Chicago Mercantile Exchange The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) (often called "the Chicago Merc", or "the Merc") is a global derivatives marketplace based in Chicago and located at 20 S. Wacker Drive. The CME was founded in 1898 as the Chicago Butter and Egg Board, a ...

's Globex electronic trading platform. E-mini contracts were first launched in 1997 for the

S&P 500 The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices. As of ...

index with great success, and are now available on a wide range of

stock market indic In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...

es,

commodities In economics, a commodity is an economic good, usually a resource, that has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them. The price of a co ...

and currencies. As of April, 2011, CME lists 44 unique E-mini contracts, of which approximately 10 have average daily trading volumes of over 1,000 contracts. Some E-mini contracts provide trading advantages, including high liquidity (and therefore tight spread), greater affordability for individual investors due to lower margin requirements than the full-size contracts, and round-the-clock trading 23.25 hours a day from Sunday afternoon to Friday afternoon. Under U.S. tax law, E-minis may qualify as

1256 Contract A 1256 Contract, as defined in section 1256 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, is any regulated futures contracts, foreign currency contracts, non-equity options (broad-based stock index options (including cash-settled ones), debt options, commod ...

s, and benefit from several tax advantages as well. The risk of loss is also amplified by the higher leverage.

Symbology

Most E-mini futures expire quarterly (with the exception of agricultural products), in March, June, September, and December. An E-mini future symbol is formed by starting with the root symbol and adding the expiration month letter (the same as for

futures Futures may mean: Finance *Futures contract, a tradable financial derivatives contract *Futures exchange, a financial market where futures contracts are traded * ''Futures'' (magazine), an American finance magazine Music * ''Futures'' (album), a ...

) and the last digit of the expiration year. For example, the E-mini S&P 500 expiring in December 2012 has the symbol ESZ2.

E-mini contracts

The table below lists some of the more popular E-mini contracts, with the initial and maintenance margins required by CME. Note that individual brokers may require different margin amounts (also called

performance bond A performance bond, also known as a contract bond, is a surety bond issued by an insurance company or a bank to guarantee satisfactory completion of a project by a contractor. The term is also used to denote a collateral deposit of good faith mon ...

s).

E-mini options

Options on E-minis exist for the E-mini S&P 500 and the E-mini NASDAQ-100.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:E-Mini Derivatives (finance)

Symbology

E-mini contracts

E-mini options

See also

References