CME Group announced plans on Monday to launch financially settled single stock futures beginning this summer, covering more than 50 of the most heavily traded US equities.
The contracts will span stocks from the S&P 500, Nasdaq-100 and Russell 1000 indices, with confirmed names including Alphabet, Meta, NVIDIA and Tesla. The launch is pending completion of regulatory review.
“These contracts will provide a simpler, more cost-effective way to take a view on a stock, while allowing market participants to gain exposure to, or hedge potential price movements, without buying shares outright,” said Tim McCourt, Global Head of Equities, FX and Alternative Products at CME Group.
The move marks a renewed attempt to establish a liquid single stock futures market in the United States. The last major effort, OneChicago, a joint venture between CBOE, CME and Interactive Brokers, shut down in September 2020 after nearly two decades of struggling to compete with the deep US equity options market.
CME’s new contracts differ in one respect, in that they are financially settled rather than physically delivered. That eliminates the operational burden of transferring actual shares and removes borrowing fees typically associated with short-selling in the cash market. The approach mirrors the structure of CME’s index futures products like the E-mini S&P 500.
Record demand drives the new products
The contracts will trade on CME’s Globex platform, which operates nearly around the clock, giving investors the ability to react to earnings releases and global events outside regular U.S. market hours. CME has also indicated the products will allow traders to control positions up to six times the value of their upfront capital, compared with the 50% initial margin required for cash equities under Regulation T.
The launch comes after a record year for CME’s equity derivatives business. In 2025, equity futures and options averaged 7.4 million contracts per day. Futures alone hit an average daily volume of 6 million contracts, up 15% year-over-year, while average open interest rose 19% to 5.6 million contracts.
