Nasdaq today announced that Mini OMXS30 Futures, providing higher accessibility to the listed futures market for all investors, are available for trading starting today. The contracts are based on OMXS30, Nasdaq’s leading European index containing the 30 most actively traded stocks on Nasdaq Stockholm, including companies such as Volvo, Investor, Ericsson and AstraZeneca.
The new contracts complement the standard OMXS30 index future, one of the most actively traded benchmark index investment products in Europe. The mini futures contracts have a notional value a tenth the size of the standard OMXS30 futures contract.
”A well-functioning futures market gives investors the possibility to manage risk and benefit from all market scenarios. At Nordnet, we work hard to democratize savings and this is an excellent example of how we, this time together with Nasdaq, lower the barriers for trading,” said Martin Ringberg, Country Manager Sweden at Nordnet.
“The addition of mini futures to OMXS30 will provide an even more cost effective way for market participants to gain access to the most actively traded benchmark index in the Nordic region,” said Alessandro Romani, Head of European Derivatives at Nasdaq. “The new Mini OMXS30 Futures products will give more opportunities for investors to manage risk while further adding to liquidity.”
Launched in 1986 as a forward contract, trading in the standard OMXS30 future has shown steady growth. Trading reached an all-time-high in March of 2020 with more than 7.7 million contracts traded that month.
The OMXS30 index was also the first benchmark index in the world to get an ESG compliant version, the OMXS30 ESG Responsible index, in June of 2018. Futures based on the ESG index were launched in October the same year, and since then more than 2.1 million contracts have been traded.
To inform investors of the opportunities but also risks of trading in derivatives, Nasdaq recently launched a derivatives education program in partnership with OptionsPlay. The program is available free of charge to all Nordic private investors.
The Mini OMXS30 Futures are available for trading on Nasdaq Stockholm.
Source: Nasdaq