Trading in gold led the way in retail activity last year, as overall buying and selling in the precious metal surged nearly 3000%.
That’s according to the latest monthly data from CME Group, which reported average daily trading volume (ADV) in COMEX E-Mini GOLD in 2025 rose by 249.4% from the previous year. ADV in December alone was up 677.4% from the same month in 2024.
This was among the largest surge among micro and e-mini futures contracts on the exchange, which tend to be favoured by retail investors as they represent fractions of more expensive contracts.
ADV in gold futures, not just micro contracts, rose by 2956.9% to 24,135 last year, from 790 in 2024.
Trading in COMEX E-Mini SILVER contracts also rose significantly last year, though not to the same extent, with ADV across 2025 rising 88.1% year on year.
Much of the activity appears to have taken place as the price of silver surged more than 40% in December, with ADV rising by 150% that month alone.
With respect to silver, the uptick in retail trading appears to have tracked that of larger institutions, with daily trading of silver futures more generally also rising by 167.2% from November to 200,121.
Other notable changes in retail trading last year came in the form of rising transactions in fractional futures of US stocks.
ADV for the MICRO E-MINI NASDAQ 100 index rose 55.4% over the 12 months to the end of December to 74,735, while trading in the MICRO E-MINI S&P500 rose 35.3% from a much larger base to 1,233,492.
Average daily trading in the E-MINI S&P 500 Equal Weight rose 92.2% from a small base to 893.
Trading of event contracts appears to have risen significantly as well, after many brokers began offering them in 2024.
ADV for EVENT CONTRACT S&P 500 futures rose a whopping 1125% last year to 1,478 from just 121 the previous year.
This appears to have almost totally been driven by trading in December, which rose by 35324.5% to 15,643 from just 44.16 in November.
When it came to retail crypto trading, Ether futures stole the show, with ADV in MICRO ETHER rising 186% compared to 2024 to 2,334. This compares to a 58.7% rise in daily trading in MICRO BITCOIN contracts to 1,232.
