Mini-DAX Futures: A decade of growth

2025 marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of Mini-DAX® Futures on Eurex, celebrating a decade of growth for this versatile trading instrument.Mini-DAX® Futures were introduced by Eurex in 2015 to broaden the appeal of DAX® Futures to a wider range of market participants. With a smaller contract size, they lowered the barrier to entry for traders and allowed institutional investors to fine-tune their positions.When Eurex launched Mini-DAX® Futures (FDXM), it had already been offering DAX® Futures (FDAX) for over 25 years, and the benchmark had established itself as a key barometer of the German economy.The DAX® is a highly liquid benchmark that tracks the performance of the 40 largest and most actively traded blue-chip companies listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. It represents about 80 percent of the total market capitalization and turnover of all German listed companies.The growth of the underlying index from 4,000 in the wake of the financial crisis to just shy of 12,000 in early 2015 sparked growing support for a mini version of the flagship DAX® Futures, with a EUR 5 multiplier compared with EUR 25 in the main contract. With a contract size of approximately EUR 300,000 at its 2015 peak, the main contract had become too large for smaller traders and made it less practical for institutions seeking granular hedging.A consultation conducted by Eurex in Q1 and Q2 2015 revealed strong support for a mini contract, leading to its launch soon afterwards. The contract was designed to meet the needs of smaller investors, proprietary trading firms, and institutions looking for a more precise hedge or the ability to take more granular positions on their German and wider European exposures. With the DAX® index now around 24,500 in October 2025, the decision to introduce the Mini-DAX® Futures has proven to be a wise one.Key milestonesMini-DAX® Futures got off to a strong start, recording an Average Daily Volume (ADV) of over 24,000 in 2016, its first full year of trading. Early milestones included engagement from key sell-side firms, several with a strong retail trading client base, that actively distributed the product to their clients.:Steve Sosnick  "Mini-DAX® Futures have become an important tool for our clients seeking precise exposure to German equities. Over the past decade, we've seen how this product supports a wide range of strategies—from tactical positioning to hedging—highlighting its relevance in today’s fast-moving markets.”Steve Sosnick, Chief Strategist, Interactive BrokersA key reason for the success of Mini-DAX® Futures was the fact that they did not cannibalize existing liquidity in the DAX® Futures but instead enhanced the overall ecosystem with new participants and trading strategies.This led to strong growth in volumes, with nearly 17 million contracts traded in 2020 amid the outbreak of COVID-19, equivalent to an ADV of 66,000.More recently, the contracts have demonstrated consistent liquidity during the period of heightened volatility, such as in the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the associated energy price rises across Europe in 2022.In April 2025, following the announcements of the “Liberation Day” tariffs by the U.S. government, Mini-DAX® Futures traded 870,000 contracts during the month. The DAX® has since gone on to reach several record highs in 2025, supported by optimism around fiscal reform in Germany and falling rates across the Eurozone. Having fallen back from their peak after the volatility spikes during the early days of COVID volumes have soared during 2025, partly due to increased trader participation globally. Since its launch, 100 million Mini-DAX® Futures contracts have been traded.Cornelius Trenz"The success of Mini-DAX® Futures is a direct result of the supportive ecosystem we’ve built with our broker and index partners. We deeply value our collaboration with our partners in bringing this product to a wider retail audience,” Cornelius Trenz, Head of Sales Americas at EurexSTOXX started administering the DAX in 2019. In 2021, in the wake of the Wirecard scandal, STOXX oversaw a revision of the DAX composition from 30 to 40 stocks, marking the biggest reform in the history of the index.Veronika Kylburg“The Mini-DAX® Futures are another example of a successful trading instrument that provides investors with easy access to the DAX® index, making it an important vehicle of the liquid DAX® ecosystem. Since 2020, we have worked to uphold and strengthen the DAX®’s positioning as the undisputed barometer for the German equity market and a reference for the broader economy.”Veronika Kylburg, Head of Global DAX® Benchmarks at STOXXGrowing ecosystemTo further enhance the DAX® index ecosystem, Eurex launched Micro-DAX® Futures in 2021. That became one of the most successful new contracts launches globally over the past decade. The Micro contract has a multiplier 25 times smaller than the FDAX.The Mini- and Micro DAX® Futures are a key component of a broad ecosystem for the DAX® at Eurex, which includes the fast-growing daily DAX® Options. DAX® Futures Mini-DAX® Futures Micro-DAX® Futures Tick value EUR 25 EUR 5 EUR 1 Use cases Large-scale hedgingStrategic asset allocationRisk transfer & arbitrage opportunities DAX exposure with smaller margin requirementsFine-tune exposureTactical positioning strategies with lower capital outlay Cost efficient way for smaller traders to participate in DAX tradingPrecise hedgingSmall-scale strategies Launch date 23 April 1990 28 October 2015 19 April 2021Investors are increasingly deploying strategies across the ecosystem to optimize risk-adjusted returns, trade inter-contract spreads, and arbitrage across the price differentials within the complex.Traders can also use options to capitalize on differences between implied and realized volatility as well as covered call writing, where profits can be generated by selling call options on existing DAX® positions and hedging with the Mini-DAX® Futures.The reduced contract sizes have made these products attractive for individual investors and smaller portfolios, while institutional clients are attracted to the liquidity and cost-efficiency accessed by trading on Eurex.As exchange-traded instruments, Mini-DAX® Futures offer transparency in pricing and trading processes, along with reduced counterparty risk through central clearing at Eurex Clearing.Looking ahead to the next decade of trading, Mini-DAX® Futures offers numerous opportunities for firms across the German and wider European market, both in the near and over the long term.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Deutsche Boerse AG Unsponsored American Deposit Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Deutsche Boerse AG Unsponsored American Deposit