Comparing European and Asian Index Futures with E-minis
Summary
The document surveys index futures outside the United States that can serve as alternatives to E-minis, focusing on contract notional, liquidity, and access through an international broker. It lists European contracts such as the CAC 40, AEX, DAX, FTSE, and Euro Stoxx 50, alongside Japanese and Hong Kong contracts. It notes that standard contracts in several markets have notionals comparable to or below an E-mini, so smaller contracts may be unnecessary for many traders.
Liquidity differs by market and contract: some European mini contracts are described as relatively illiquid and wider than the standard contract, while Japanese and Hong Kong minis are reported to have reasonable volume and tight quotes. The answer also points to retail structured products in Europe and Hong Kong as an alternative route to leveraged exposure. Contract sizes and broker symbols are examples from the source and can change with market levels or listings; the response is a practical snapshot, not a current liquidity comparison.
Key ideas
- Many non-US standard index futures have contract notionals in the range of US E-minis.
- European mini contracts may be less liquid and wider than their standard counterparts.
- Japanese and Hong Kong mini index futures are described as having usable liquidity.
- Contract choice depends on notional exposure, spreads, liquidity, and broker access.
- Retail structured products are common alternatives in some European and Hong Kong markets.
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Full text
# Equivalents of E-minis in markets outside the US # Equivalents of E-minis in markets outside the US E-minis include some high-liquidity lower margin market index future contracts with round-the-clock trading. However, volumes outside regular trading hours are much smaller. Are there equivalent contracts in other markets around the world, accessible through an international broker such as IB? ## Answer by Lliane (score 3, accepted) https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/31139 Actually in Europe and Asia many regular (big size) future contracts have a notional similar or smaller than the e-mini sp 500 (<= 110k USD at current market prices). I trade the CAC 40/AEX (on IB by the way) and the minis are illiquid and quote wider for the same transaction fees than the big one (10 ticks vs 1 tick for CAC 40 for instance). In Asia mini-TOPIX/NIKKEI (Japan), mini-HSI/HSCE have reasonable volumes and quote tight. Europe - French CAC 40, lot size 10 = 50k USD (Euronext) (There are minis with lot size 1, relatively illiquid), IB Symbol CAC40 - Dutch AEX, lot size 100 = 50k USD (Euronext) (There are minis with lot size 10, relatively illiquid), IB Symbol EOE - German DAX, lot size 25 = 300k USD, mini with lot size 5 = 65k USD (Eurex) (a bit more liquid than the previous two), IB Symbol DAX - British FTSE, lot size 10 = 85 k USD (ICE), IB Symbol Z - Euro Stoxx 50, lot size 10 = 30k USD (Eurex), IB Symbol ESTX50 Asia - Japanese Nikkei, lot size 1000 = 170k USD, mini with lot size 100 = 17k USD (JPX) or Topix/mini-topix (140k/14k), good liquidity for the minis, IB Symbol N225 N225M TOPX MNTPX - Hong Kong HSI, lot size 500 = 150k USD, mini with lot size 10 = 30k USD (HKEX), good liquidity for the minis, IB Symbols HSI MHI HHI.HK MCH.HK In Europe and HK, the products targeted for retail are usually listed certificates (structured products), called CBBC (callable bull bear contract) in Hong Kong, Turbos in Europe. They are quite heavily marketed by financial institutions to retail traders. For this reason (but mostly I think because of the already small size of the full size contract), the need for mini futures is less important than for US index where the big contract is ... well, big.
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This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.