CME Group lists Single Stock futures on Sunday 27 July, subject to completion of regulatory review. The launch covers more than 50 US stocks across 55 standard-sized and 22 Micro-sized contracts β the exchange’s most direct move yet into single-name equity exposure.
The structure
| Standard | Micro | |
|---|---|---|
| Contracts at launch | 55 | 22 |
| Multiplier | 100 shares | 10 shares |
| Settlement | Cash | Cash |
Both sizes are cash settled, which is the detail that shapes everything else about how they behave. There is no delivery of stock, no assignment mechanics, and no borrow to arrange for a short position. Exposure is opened and closed in the futures market and settled in cash against the underlying share price.
The 10-share Micro multiplier is the notable one. At a $200 share price, a Micro contract represents about $2,000 of notional exposure β small enough that single-name futures stop being an institutions-only instrument.
What’s listing
The names are drawn from the S&P 500, Nasdaq-100 and Russell 1000. Reported constituents include Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOGL), Meta (META), Nvidia (NVDA), Tesla (TSLA), Micron (MU) and the recently-public SpaceX (SPCX).
CME publishes the full list of all 55 standard and 22 Micro contracts on its single stock futures page β worth checking directly, since the final roster is subject to the regulatory process completing.
Why cash settlement matters here
Single stock futures are not new to US markets in concept β security futures existed under a joint SEC-CFTC framework for years and largely failed to gather liquidity. The structural difference this time is that these contracts sit inside CME’s existing futures and options complex.
That has one concrete consequence: because they are cash settled and cleared alongside CME’s equity index products, they can be combined with index exposure in a single margin framework. A position in a single name and a position in an E-mini or Micro E-mini index contract sit in the same account, under the same clearing house, and can be spread against one another. That is the integration CME is selling β not the single-name exposure by itself, which is already available through shares and equity options.
The broader pattern
The launch fits a run of retail-facing product expansion from CME through 2026:
- Event contracts passed 100 million traded since their December launch, and moved to 24/7 at the end of May.
- Cryptocurrency futures and options went 24/7 on 29 May.
- 1-Ounce Gold futures β at 1/100 the size of the benchmark gold contract β moved to 24/7 on 24 July. We covered what the 1OZ contract is.
- A smaller-sized WTI crude oil contract is due to list on 30 August.
The common thread is contract size. Nearly every one of these listings is a smaller-denomination version of an existing benchmark, which points at an audience with less capital per position than the institutional users these markets were built for.
What is genuinely unknown
Two things will not be clear on day one.
Liquidity. A listed contract and a liquid contract are different things, and the previous generation of US security futures is the cautionary example β the product existed, the participation did not follow. Whether these contracts attract continuous two-sided markets is a question the volume and open interest data will answer over months.
Which names concentrate. With 77 contracts listing simultaneously, activity is unlikely to spread evenly. In most multi-listing launches a handful of names take the large majority of volume while the rest stay thin. Which ones is not knowable in advance.
For context on how positioning data develops in a new contract, CME’s equity index complex is the closest comparison β the weekly CFTC breakdown for the E-mini S&P 500, Nasdaq-100, Russell 2000 and Dow contracts is on our COT report page.
Contract details are sourced from CME Group’s published announcements and specifications and re-stated in our own words; the launch remains subject to completion of regulatory review, and final contract terms should be confirmed with your broker or the exchange. CME Group, CME, E-mini and Micro E-mini are trademarks of CME Group Inc. ForexBullion is not affiliated with or endorsed by CME Group. This article is descriptive market reporting and is not investment advice.
