Overview of Futures Contracts
Source: Notion | Last edited: 2023-06-21 | ID: 1254558b-b3c...
Oil Futures
Section titled “Oil Futures”Contract Name: CL, West Texas Intermediate Light Sweet Crude Oil Futures
Venue: CME, NY
CONTRACT UNIT: 1,000 barrels
PRICE QUOTATION: U.S. dollars and cents per barrel
TRADING HOURS
CME Globex:
Sunday - Friday 5:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. CT with a 60-minute break each day beginning at 4:00 p.m. CT
CME ClearPort:
Sunday 5:00 p.m. - Friday 4:00 p.m. CT with no reporting Monday - Thursday from 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. CT
Volumes: between 800,000 and 1,000,000 contracts per day
Note: if the contract quote is 70,500.00. Daily volumes in USD terms are around 80 billion.
10.00 price difference in the contract.
Important: This contract is physically deliverable. That means that if we hold a contract to maturity, we will either receive 1000 barrels of crude oil, or we will have to deliver 1000 barrels of crude oil. It is extremely important that we close out positions before contract expiry, or roll over into a new contract. If we work with KatonahEVE or similar, they will likely handle this on the execution side.
EUR Futures
Section titled “EUR Futures”Contract Name: EUR/USD, 6E
Venue: CBOE (owned by CME)
Contract size: 125,000 EUR
Expiration: Quarterly, Monthly
Minimum Tick Size: 6.25 per contract)
Trading Hours: Sun – Fr 5:00pm – 4:00pm CT (a 60 minute break each day)
Daily Volumes: 200k – 800k contracts
JPY Futures
Section titled “JPY Futures”Contract Name: JPY/USD, 6J
Venue: CBOE (owned by CME)
Contract size: 12.5 million Yen
Expiration: Quarterly, Monthly
Minimum Tick Size: 6.25 per contract)
Trading Hours: Sun – Fr 5:00pm – 4:00pm CT (a 60 minute break each day)
Daily Volumes: 300k – 500k contracts
Corn Futures
Section titled “Corn Futures”Contract Name: Corn, ZC, C
Venue: CBOT (owned by CME)
Contract Size: 5000 bushels (1 bushel is 140 pounds of corn)
Price Quotation: US Cents per bushel
Trading Hours: CME Globex:
Sunday - Friday, 7:00 p.m. - 7:45 a.m. CT and
Monday - Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 1:20 p.m. CT
Daily Volumes: 350,000 contracts
Last Price: 610’6 (I think this means 610 cents and 6/8th of a cent (see Wheat Futures Note)
Wheat Futures
Section titled “Wheat Futures”Contract Name: Wheat, ZW, W
Venue: CBOT (owned by CME)
Contract Size: 5000 bushels (~ 136 metric tons)
Price Quotation: US Cents per bushel
Trading Hours: CME Globex:
Sunday - Friday, 7:00 p.m. - 7:45 a.m. CT and
Monday - Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 1:20 p.m. CT
Daily Volumes: 200,000 contracts
Last Price: 718’4
Note on Price quotations: In the case of “718’4”, the number before the apostrophe (718) represents the whole number of cents. The number after the apostrophe (4) represents the fractional part of a cent, in eighths of a cent.
So, “718’4” means 718 and 4/8 cents, or 718.50 cents.
This means that if a wheat futures contract is quoted at 718’4, each bushel of wheat in the contract is priced at 35,925.00.
Bund Futures
Section titled “Bund Futures”Bund futures are financial derivatives that are based on German government-issued debt. The term “Bund” is short for “Bundesobligationen,” which are Federal obligations or bonds issued by Germany’s Federal Government.
- Exchange: Bund futures are traded on the Eurex Exchange, which is one of the world’s leading derivatives exchanges, based in Frankfurt, Germany.
- Contract Size: The contract size of a Bund future is 100,000 Euros. This means that each contract represents a notional amount of 100,000 Euros worth of German government debt.
- Underlying Asset: The underlying asset for Bund futures is German government bonds with a remaining term of 8.5 to 10.5 years.
- Tick Size: The minimum price change, or tick size, is 0.01 percent, which equals 10 Euros per contract.
- Trading Hours: Bund futures trade from early morning until late evening Central European Time, with a break in the late afternoon.
- Contract Months: The contract months for Bund futures are March, June, September, and December.
- Last Trading Day: The last trading day is the 10th calendar day of the contract month, if this day is an exchange trading day; otherwise the exchange trading day immediately preceding that day.
- Settlement: Bund futures contracts are cash-settled in Euros. This means that no physical delivery of German government bonds occurs.
Gilts Futures
Section titled “Gilts Futures”Gilt Futures: Gilt futures are derivatives contracts that derive their value from the price movement of UK government bonds. They are standardized contracts that are traded on a futures exchange. The most common place to trade gilt futures is on the ICE Futures Europe Exchange (formerly known as the London International Financial Futures Exchange, or LIFFE).
The contract size for a long gilt future is £100,000, and the tick size is £10. The contracts are cash-settled, meaning no physical delivery of bonds occurs.