What are micro and e-mini Futures contracts?

When traditional Futures contracts began to grow expensive beyond the reach of the average traders, fractional contracts known as Micro contracts came into use.

Micro Futures contracts grant access to Futures markets for a smaller amount of money than traditional Futures.

As mini Futures contracts grew more expensive, in a similar fashion, micro e-mini Futures contracts entered the market in 2019.

With micro e-mini Futures contracts’ attractive price points, the possibility to trade against the stock market as a whole became more available to ordinary investors. The increased liquidity and accessibility of micro e-mini Futures also widen their appeal to investors.

With Plus500, you’ll gain access to e-mini and micro Futures contracts on a range of instruments from the EUR/USD Forex pair, to the S&P 500, and beyond.

Let’s take a look at an illustrative example of how these contracts function:

With a Dow e-mini Futures contract, you get exposure to the 30 blue-chip stocks tracked by the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). The micro e-mini Dow Futures contract represents 1/10 of the original Micro Dow Jones Industrial Average Contract. In this way, the financial commitment needed to trade a micro e-mini Futures contract is much less than that of the original Futures contract.

It’s important to note that along with increased affordability and accessibility, e-mini Futures also come with heightened volatility.