The first U.S. equity index derivatives began trading on Eurex US on Friday, with the launch of futures on the large-cap Russell 1000 Index and the small-cap Russell 2000 Index.
“The first day of trading in both the Russell 1000 and Russell 2000 indexes not only reflects the strong industry support for these products but also demonstrates the deep liquidity and tight spreads provided by a strong network of firms,” says Satish Nandapurkar, CEO of Eurex US. “The launch of our new equity index derivatives suite gives market participants even more low cost trading and arbitrage opportunities on Eurex US and is a another step toward serving our customers worldwide with a full range of USD products.”
“These new products will provide market users with a wider range of trading opportunities,” adds Bertrand Meyer, COO of Equity Derivative Americas at BNP Paribas Securities Corp. “We intend to help bring levels of liquidity to these products that will lead to their long term success.”
A total of 7,778 Russell 2000 and 296 Russell 1000 futures contracts traded on Eurex US during the first day of trading in the products. Eurex US is waiving all trading fees for all market participants for the first three months of trading in the Russell products.
Twenty-two firms are acting as market makers for the new products and are providing additional liquidity and increasing order book depth by continuously quoting prices and offering competitive spreads. Market makers will be active during the core U.S. trading hours (8:30 am to 3:00pm CST).
The large-cap Russell 1000 index measures the performance of the 1,000 largest U.S. companies based on total market capitalization. The Russell 2000 measures the performance of the 2000 companies following the Russell 1000 components and is the industry standard for U.S. small-cap companies.