CME Group launched single-stock futures on more than 50 of the largest U.S. companies, giving traders a new leveraged way to bet on names like Apple, Amazon and Nvidia without ever owning the shares.
Key Takeaways
CME Group rolled out 77 single-stock futures contracts covering Apple, Nvidia, Tesla and 50-plus other stocks.The new contracts trade nearly 23 hours a day, five days a week, on CME Globex.CME’s bitcoin futures open interest sank to a 14-month low of $8.41 billion in April 2026.All contracts are cash-settled against the underlying stock’s closing price and follow a quarterly expiration structure, similar to CME’s existing equity index futures. Tim McCourt, CME Group’s global head of equities, FX and alternative products, said the launch is a response to trader demand, noting:
“Clients want to manage equity price risk with more precision and with the capital efficiencies of a centralized marketplace.”
Built for Around-the-Clock AccessThe single-stock futures trade for roughly 23 hours a day, five days a week, on CME’s Globex platform, far longer than the 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern window that governs regular US stock trading. That structure lets traders react to earnings reports, macro data or geopolitical headlines the moment they break, rather than waiting for the opening bell.
However, such flexibility carries its own risk, with Mat Cashman, principal for investor education at the Options Clearing Corp, cautioning that liquidity can thin out overnight. Cashman said trading outside of normal hours, “including during the volatile minutes after companies report earnings, can be choppy,” a warning that echoes concerns already raised about thin order books in CME’s round-the-clock crypto markets.
Unlike commission-free equity and options apps that rely on payment for order flow, futures traders typically pay a commission on every single-stock contract they trade.
Single-stock futures are not new to the US, but they have a rocky history. OneChicago, an exchange jointly owned by CME Group, Cboe Global Markets and Interactive Brokers, traded security futures for nearly two decades before it shut down in September 2020, citing thin demand.
The new contracts notably exclude any crypto tokens or digital assets, but they run on infrastructure CME has refined for years through its crypto business, i.e. cash-settled, margin-based products that let traders take leveraged, custody-free exposure to a fast-moving asset. CME launched bitcoin futures back in 2017 and has since built out the largest regulated derivatives market for digital assets in the country.
