"At just over three years old, our Micro E-mini S&P 500 futures have become some of the most actively traded and deeply liquid equity index products at CME Group, averaging more than 1.1 million contracts traded per day," said Paul Woolman, Global Head of Equity Index Products at CME Group. "At one-tenth the size of their benchmark E-mini counterpart, these micro-sized futures allow market participants to hedge or trade with enhanced flexibility around major market-moving events by executing trading strategies more nimbly and scaling index exposure up or down."

"The S&P 500 is widely regarded as the best single gauge of the U.S. equity market and serves as the foundation for a wide range of liquid investment vehicles around the world," said Bruce Schachne, Chief Commercial Officer at S&P Dow Jones Indices. "S&P DJI extends its sincere congratulations to CME Group for reaching another significant market milestone, the first to cross this threshold within its complex. We are proud of the growth that we've seen within our indices business and look forward to continuing to provide leading index solutions across varying geographies and asset classes."

Eoin Treacy's view

This is a substantial milestone. It reflects significant growth in risk appetite as the margins demanded for a position were decreased. That’s doubly true as demand for options of the stock market has ballooned since the advent of extraordinary monetary and fiscal accommodation.