.jpg)
CME Group, the world's largest and most diverse derivatives exchange, and The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ OMX) (Nasdaq: NDAQ), the world's largest exchange company, today marked the 10th anniversary of the listing of E-mini futures on the popular NASDAQ-100 Index(R).
Since the product launch in June 1999, more than 636 million E-mini NASDAQ-100 futures contracts have traded, making it one of the world's most successful equity index futures contracts. Today, more than 330,000 E-mini NASDAQ-100 Index futures contracts trade on average each day, which carries a notional value of $9 billion.
"Our partnership with NASDAQ OMX has benefitted our customers who have continued to embrace the E-mini NASDAQ contract because of its liquidity, transparency and relevance to their trading strategies," said Scot Warren, CME Group Managing Director of Equity Products. "With the trades backed by CME Clearing, which has served as the counterparty to every trade and so minimalized credit risk, the product has become even more attractive to customers."
"These products have enabled even more people to trade the NASDAQ-100 Index, opening up even more opportunities to gain exposure or hedge their portfolios' performance," said John Jacobs, Executive Vice President, NASDAQ OMX Global Index Group. "As the premier benchmark for non-financial stocks, the NASDAQ-100 Index continues to serve multiple investment needs."
The NASDAQ-100 Index includes the top 100 domestic and international non-financial securities based on market capitalization listed on The NASDAQ Stock Market(R). The E-mini NASDAQ-100 Index futures contracts reached a record trading volume day of 1.15 million contracts on September 18, 2008, with open interest hitting a record 641,440 contracts on June 13, 2007.
The E-mini NASDAQ-100 futures contract trades exclusively on the CME Globex(R) electronic trading platform almost 23 hours a day. Options on the E-mini NASDAQ-100 futures were added in 2004. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange has listed a full-size NASDAQ-100 contract since 1996.
