To be traded on CME's GLOBEX®2 electronic trading system, E-mini Russell 2000 futures -like CME's other E-mini index products-will be sized at one-fifth the standard-sized version or $100 times the Russell 2000 index price. Contracts to be listed will be the March quarterly cycle, and trading hours will be 3:45 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. the following day, Monday through Friday, with trading opening at 5:30 p.m. on Sundays. The "tick" size or minimum price fluctuation will be 0.10 index points, equivalent to $10.00.
Like other E-mini equities traded on CME, the new smaller contracts will be "fungible" with the standard contracts in that positions in the smaller contract may be offset by trading against an equivalent dollar-value of standard-size Russell 2000 futures and vice versa.
The Russell 2000 Index measures the performance of the 2,000 smallest companies in the Russell 3000 Index, which itself represents approximately 98 percent of the investable U.S. equity market. The Russell 2000 reflects approximately 8 percent of the total market capitalization of the Russell 3000 Index. As of the latest reconstitution of the Russell 2000, the average market capitalization was approximately $530 million; the median market capitalization was approximately $410 million. The largest company in the index had an approximate market capitalization of $1.4 billion.
CME launched its first E-mini index product in September 1997 when E-mini S&P 500 futures and options were first traded. CME followed with E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures in 1999, and the two products became the fastest growing products in the exchange's history.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (www.cme.com) is an international marketplace that brings together buyers and sellers on its trading floors and GLOBEX2 around-the-clock electronic trading system. CME offers futures contracts and options on futures primarily in four product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign currencies and agricultural commodities. The exchange moves about $1.5 billion per day in settlement payments and manages $28.4 billion in collateral deposits.
