CME launched 55 standard single-stock futures and 22 Micro versions on Nvidia and other major US stocks on July 27, trading 23 hours a day so traders can react the moment a company like Nvidia moves after its earnings drop. The bet echoes a nearly identical product that launched in 2002 and failed to attract enough traders to survive.
On July 27, CME launched 55 standard single-stock futures and 22 Micro versions linked to Nvidia, Apple, Tesla, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft. When Nvidia releases earnings after the bell, its shares can move on extended-hours systems while its single-stock future trades on CME, giving the exchange a shot at becoming the venue traders trust for the first reaction.
A leveraged position in one contract
A single-stock future tracks one company's shares and settles in cash at expiry, so money moves with the contract's final value while the underlying stock stays where it is. CME's standard contracts represent 100 shares, and its Micro contracts represent 10; at a futures price of $200, the standard version controls $20,000 of exposure and the Micro controls $2,000.
A trader deposits only a fraction of that value to hold the position, which creates leverage and magnifies gains and losses alike. CME says the 55 underlying companies generate more than $200 billion in average daily notional activity. By index weight, they account for roughly 55% to 65% of both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq-100.
The first attempt didn't survive
Single-stock futures aren't new. OneChicago began trading 21 of them on November 8, 2002, backed by CME, Cboe and the Chicago Board of Trade, and by the end of that year had expanded to 83 contracts.
The product never found scale next to the options market, however. OneChicago handled roughly 11.7 million contracts in 2015, while a decade later the US options market was averaging 61 million contracts in a single day. OneChicago stopped operating in September 2020.
A different customer this time
CME is betting the audience has changed. US options set their sixth consecutive annual volume record in 2025, with more than 15.2 billion contracts changing hands.
Activity in options tied to individual stocks rose 28% from 2024. On Robinhood, users traded 231 million options contracts in May 2026 alone.
The platform's customer margin balances reached $19.5 billion, more than double their level a year earlier. That is the base of traders already comfortable with leverage and expiration dates that CME now wants trading Nvidia futures at hours the stock exchange itself is closed.
Extended access, thinner liquidity
FINRA warns that extended-hours trading often involves fewer counterparties, higher volatility, wider bid-ask spreads and inconsistent prices across venues, and orders may fill only partially, at an inferior price, or not at all. Micro contracts cut the size of a position but keep the same margin mechanics as the standard contract, so the danger that comes with leverage doesn't shrink with it. Whether Nvidia's single-stock future succeeds where OneChicago's version failed depends on whether enough traders and market makers actually show up to trade it.
Source: CryptoSlate
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