A five-year success story: Micro Futures drive global adoption of European benchmarks
This year marks the fifth anniversary of Eurex’s micro futures – a product suite that comprises DAX, EURO STOXX 50 and SMI micro contracts. The suite’s launch tapped into growing demand from retail and institutional traders seeking European exposure via more precise and cost-efficient solutions.
Not only have these futures broadened the profile of investors that can participate in European benchmarks, they have also opened up the European market to greater global participation. This has been particularly noticeable in Asia, where new flows have come from traders looking for exposure to Europe’s indexes.
Average Daily Volume Development
Year | FDXS | FSMS | FSXE | Total |
2021 | 12,255 | 32 | 1,147 | 13,434 |
2022 | 30,495 | 28 | 1,743 | 32,266 |
2023 | 20,910 | 38 | 1,193 | 22,141 |
2024 | 23,587 | 16 | 1,415 | 25,017 |
2025 | 24,129 | 24 | 1,842 | 25,017 |
2026 | 28,380 | 55 | 2,429 | 30,864 |
Daily Turnover in EUR
Year | FDXS | FSMS | FSXE | Total |
2021 | 190,561,711 | 360,132 | 4,721,540 | 195,643,382 |
2022 | 421,545,659 | 311,846 | 6,523,212 | 428,380,718 |
2023 | 327,711,818 | 427,344 | 5,085,716 | 333,224,878 |
2024 | 436,809,890 | 196,573 | 6,893,794 | 443,900,257 |
2025 | 436,809,890 | 196,573 | 6,893,794 | 443,900,257 |
2026 | 687,889,817 | 762,606 | 14,155,696 | 702,808,11 |
While the Micro-DAX® contracts offer exposure to blue-chip German companies and the Micro-EURO STOXX 50® to Europe’s most well-traded index, Micro-SMI® Futures provide traders with an instrument for Swiss exposure.
Since those launches, momentum has built over five years, with 2025 being a particularly noteworthy year for participation in Micro-DAX® Futures. Eurex saw a 52 percent year-on-year increase in trading activity during that time, with much of the rise coming from positioning around the impact on the German economy from domestic political events and geopolitical tensions around the U.S.-China trade wars. Trading surged in the lead up to snap federal elections in February and during the coalition negotiations that followed it.
DAX® index price movement chart
The growth story of the last five years has also been driven by growing familiarity, as more traders have added micro futures to their toolbox for uses as diverse as intraday strategies, portfolio hedging and cross-index spread trades. Demand has of course come from European accounts, but Asia has formed a growing and significant contributor to activity too. In a sign of the growing health and robustness of the market’s liquidity, the average spread of the Micro-DAX® Futures has tightened by about 0.4bps between Q2 2025 to Q1 2026.
Eurex and STOXX have helped build a liquid, global trading ecosystem around the DAX since the index’s inception nearly 40 years ago. The micro futures are the latest addition to this investment toolbox, and further cement the DAX’s standing as Germany’s go-to market reference.
Veronika Kylburg
Head of Global DAX® Benchmarks, STOXX
Growing participation can be expected this year. German state and municipal elections throughout 2026 will provide important indicators of national sentiment. Beyond that, Micro-DAX® Futures could also prove to be a useful instrument for navigating global economic trends.
Micro futures have become a core tool for self-directed investors who want benchmark exposure without committing large amounts of capital. The smaller contract size lets clients scale positions more precisely and manage risk with the same discipline institutions apply to full-size contracts.
David Friedland
Head of Asia Pacific, Interactive Brokers Hong Kong
Given that only 18 percent of DAX® constituents’ revenue is generated domestically, according to a 2023 Deutsche Bank report1, trading the index allows both retail and institutional traders to tap into global economic and geopolitical trends, as well as German domestic conditions.
This sensitivity to global macro events is particularly observable from price movements around events such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Liberation day and the breakout of the Iran War. The volatility shown during such events reinforces the DAX®’s function as a vector for macro trading beyond Germany.
In a world of shifting trade relationships and greater caution among investors towards U.S. heavy exposures, these contracts could also become a tool for navigating the portfolio rebalancing that many market participants are currently undertaking as a reaction to trade uncertainty.
Retail demand across APAC for micro-sized European contracts continues to grow as investors use Eurex’s extended trading session from the Asian open to access Europe’s outperforming markets.
Xing Wai Lim
Senior Vice President, Sales APAC, Eurex
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1 Deutsche Bank, “Made in Germany – The sore athlete of Europe,” September 2023
