The Brazilian Mercantile & Futures Exchange (BM&F) traded a record-breaking 8.817 million mini futures contracts in 2006. In 2005, this total amounted to 1.013 million. For 2007, BM&F plans to launch a new mini futures contract for gold. Currently, the Exchange has a portfolio of four mini futures contracts available to its investors: Live Cattle, Coffee (launched in late 2006), US Dollar and Ibovespa Index, the first three contracts being one tenth of BM&F’s standard contract size. The Ibovespa Index mini futures is equivalent to 20% of the regular Futures Bovespa Index contracts traded at BM&F. In 2006, the US Dollar contract was the most traded among the BM&F mini futures, totaling 5.053 million contracts. “Mini futures averaged 39 thousand contracts a day traded in 2006. This growth shows that individuals are actively trading at the Exchange”, states Manoel Felix Cintra Neto, chairman of BM&F’s Board of Governors.
Mini futures contracts are traded daily from Monday through Friday via Webtrading, BM&F’s electronic trading platform. On the Webtrading menu found on this homepage, there is additional information on the mini futures contracts traded at BM&F, including a minicourse and a transaction simulator. In order to trade BM&F’s mini futures contracts, investors must be registered with one of the Exchange’s member brokerage houses.
