CME Group has confirmed it will launch Single Stock futures this summer, pending the completion of regulatory review. The new contracts — announced on February 10, 2026 — will give traders futures exposure to more than 50 of the largest U.S. companies, including Apple, NVIDIA, Tesla, Alphabet, Meta, and JPMorgan, all financially settled and cleared through CME.
For a market that has spent two decades trading index futures, options, and ETFs, this is a meaningful addition. Single Stock futures pair the single-name precision of a stock with the capital efficiency, nearly around-the-clock access, and clean short-selling mechanics of a futures contract. Here is what is actually launching, how the contracts work, and what they could mean for active and systematic traders.
This isn’t the first time — but it may be the first time it sticks
Single stock futures have existed in the U.S. before. OneChicago listed physically settled single stock futures from 2002 until the venue wound down in 2020, but they never reached critical mass. CME’s version is different in two important ways: the contracts are financially settled, which removes the operational friction of share delivery, and they will list on the deepest equity-derivatives ecosystem in the world. CME also notes that demand for equity derivatives set records in 2025 — equity futures and options averaged 7.4 million contracts per day, with equity futures average daily volume up 15% year over year. The timing is deliberate.
What CME is launching
The initial roster is 54 Single Stock futures spanning leaders of the S&P 500, Nasdaq-100, and Russell 1000. A few essentials every trader should know up front:
- Financially settled. No physical share delivery and no assignment — positions cash-settle against the underlying.
- 100 shares per contract. Each contract represents 100 shares of the underlying stock.
- Quarterly listings. Contracts expire in March, June, September, and December, with two consecutive quarters listed at a time. Trading terminates at 4:00 p.m. ET on the third Friday of the contract month.
- Nearly 23-hour access. The contracts trade on CME Globex from Sunday 6:00 p.m. to Friday 5:00 p.m. ET, with a short daily maintenance window.
- BTIC supported. Basis Trade at Index Close functionality is available across listed months, useful for executing at the official close.
- Pending regulatory review. CME is targeting summer 2026; the contract list and specifications remain subject to change until the products are live.
Why the futures wrapper changes the picture
The appeal of Single Stock futures isn’t the underlying exposure — you can already buy Apple or short Tesla in a brokerage account. It is the structure. A futures wrapper changes the mechanics in ways that matter to anyone who trades single names actively.
Trade nearly around the clock
Futures trade nearly 24 hours a day while the stock market sleeps. When a company reports earnings after the bell or a macro print lands before the open, you can respond immediately rather than waiting for the 9:30 a.m. opening auction.
Do more with less capital
Unlike stock, which is typically fully funded, futures are traded on margin. You control a 100-share position with a fraction of the capital, which frees the rest for diversification or other strategies. Capital efficiency is the single biggest structural difference between holding stock and holding a Single Stock future.
Go short as easily as long
Shorting a future is mechanically identical to going long — no stock borrow, no locate, no borrow fees, and no risk of a forced buy-in. For traders who run both sides of the book, that symmetry is a genuine edge over cash equities.
Dividends and corporate actions are priced in
Expected dividends are embedded in the futures price, so there is no scramble around ex-dividend dates and no obligation to pay a dividend when you are short, as there is with borrowed stock.
A linear payout with no early-exercise risk
Options give you a non-linear payoff and the ever-present possibility of early assignment. Single Stock futures have a clean, linear payout and no exercise mechanics — what you see is what you get, on both sides of the trade.
Cleaner spreads and relative-value trades
Because each contract isolates a single name, you can build pairs trades, sector spreads, and relative-value positions without disturbing your broader portfolio exposure — expressing, for example, a view that one chipmaker outperforms another without taking on net market beta.
Single Stock futures vs. stocks vs. options
| Feature | Single Stock Futures | Stocks & ETFs | Stock Options |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trading hours | ~23 hours a day (Sun–Fri) | 9:30 a.m.–4:00 p.m. ET (Mon–Fri) | 9:30 a.m.–4:00 p.m. ET (Mon–Fri) |
| Going short | Seamless — no borrow fees or locate | Often involves borrow fees and restrictions | Seamless — no borrow fees or locate |
| Capital efficiency | Lower margin | Requires more capital (fully funded or limited margin) | Lower margin |
| Settlement | Financially settled; no ownership of shares | Typically ownership of shares | Physical delivery of shares |
| Dividends | Included in the futures price; no early-exercise risk | Holders receive cash; shorts must pay | May forfeit the dividend if exercised early |
| Risk profile | Linear payout | Linear payout | Non-linear payout; early-exercise risk |
Key contract specifications
| Contract size | 100 shares of the underlying stock |
| Price quotation | U.S. dollars and cents per index point |
| Minimum price fluctuation | 0.01 index points = $1.00 (BTIC: 0.01 = $1.00) |
| Listed contracts | Quarterly (Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec), two consecutive quarters |
| Trading hours (Globex) | Sunday 6:00 p.m. – Friday 5:00 p.m. ET, with daily maintenance 5:00–6:00 p.m. ET |
| Settlement method | Financially settled |
| Termination of trading | 4:00 p.m. ET on the third Friday of the contract month |
Specifications are summarized from CME’s published fact card and are subject to change pending regulatory completion.
The names you’ll be able to trade
The initial list of 54 covers megacap technology, financials, healthcare, energy, consumer, and industrial leaders. Subject to change, it includes:
- Technology & communications: Apple, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Broadcom, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, Netflix, Adobe, Salesforce, Oracle, AMD, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Micron, Applied Materials, Intel, Cisco, IBM, Palantir, Palo Alto Networks, Comcast
- Financials: JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Visa, Mastercard, Berkshire Hathaway
- Healthcare: Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, UnitedHealth Group, AbbVie, Merck, Amgen, Pfizer
- Consumer: Tesla, Walmart, Costco, Home Depot, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Starbucks, Booking Holdings, Walt Disney
- Energy: Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips
- Industrials & materials: Caterpillar, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Newmont, Prologis
- Telecom: Verizon
What this means for systematic and managed-futures traders
For traders who run rules-based systems, Single Stock futures are more than a convenience — they are 54 new, liquid building blocks that behave the way a systematic process wants instruments to behave.
- Symmetric long/short modeling. With no borrow constraint or fee, the short side of a strategy can be modeled and executed exactly like the long side — no locate availability to corrupt a backtest, no asymmetric carry to reconcile.
- Capital efficiency across more names. Margin-based exposure frees capital to diversify a system across more underlyings, or to run several strategies in parallel rather than tying up cash in fully funded stock.
- Overnight execution. A nearly 23-hour session means systems that generate signals on overnight data or react to after-hours earnings can execute when the signal fires, not at the next open.
- Single-name spreads and relative value. Isolating one stock’s risk makes pairs, sector-neutral, and cross-sectional momentum strategies cleaner to build and cheaper to carry.
- Unified infrastructure. Trading single names as futures means they clear and report through the same futures account and FCM as your index and commodity exposure — one margin pool, one statement, one operational workflow.
A word of caution from two decades in the business: a brand-new contract takes time to build liquidity, and depth will vary from name to name in the early months. Bid-ask spreads and slippage matter more in a young market, so size positions accordingly and watch which contracts actually trade before committing a system to them.
How to get access
Comercio de Sabiduria is an independent, NFA-registered Introducing Broker with direct market access across CME and execution support for both discretionary and systematic traders. As Single Stock futures list this summer, we will be positioned to provide access through our cleared FCM relationships — R.J. O’Brien, StoneX, and Phillip Capital — whether you want to take a single-name view, hedge a concentrated position, or wire these contracts into an automated strategy. If you would like to evaluate whether Single Stock futures belong in your toolkit, start the conversation and a principal will respond within one business day.
Single Stock futures are pending completion of all regulatory review; the contract list, specifications, and launch timing are subject to change. Trading futures involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. This article is for general educational purposes and is not an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any contract. Source: CME Group Single Stock futures fact card and the February 10, 2026 announcement.