Tracking global futures indices
Many exchanges in the world now offer futures contracts. Eurex, the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), Chicago Merchantile Exchange (CME), the Hong Kong Futures Exchange, the Singapore Exchange (SIMEX) and the Sydney Futures Exchange are some of the world’s largest futures markets. In fact, Eurex, the German-Swiss derivatives exchange, was the world’s biggest financial futures exchange at the end of 1999, overtaking the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) for the first time after a huge increase in contracts traded in 1999.

The synchronisation of the Indian capital markets with the US bourse Nasdaq in the recent past has broadened Indian investors’ horizon to world markets. Notably, they have gone forward to watch the various futures markets, particularly the NASDAQ 100 index futures (which is based on NASDAQ 100 Index for March, June, September and December) to decide their short-term investment strategy. Following table provides a list of the world’s leading futures indices and the places where they are traded.