Miami International appoints futures, product executives ahead of expansion push

The New Jersey-based venue said the expanded roles for the two key members of its senior management team, which take effect immediately, support strategic growth initiatives at MIAX Futures.

In his new role, Brown oversees the exchange’s growth strategy, including the planned upcoming launch of futures on the Bloomberg 500 Index in the first quarter of 2026.

Brown, who has been with MIAX since April 2011 as executive vice president for strategic planning and business development, was also appointed chief strategy officer at Miami International Holdings.

“Shelly is a seasoned executive in our industry with a deep understanding of the roadmap to launching several key futures products in our pipeline,” said Thomas Gallagher, chairman and CEO of MIAX and chairman of MIAX Futures.

MIAX Futures was launched in October last year as the rebranded Minneapolis Grain Exchange, which was acquired by MIH in late 2020.

MIAX Futures at the start of this year announced plans to launch futures and options based on a new US blue-chip stock index from Bloomberg Index Services called the B500.

Brown on a results call last week said MIAX Sapphire's trading floor captured about 6.5% of the industry's trading floor volume in October. He also said that 0DTE (zero-day-to-expiry) options on single stocks represent a significant growth opportunity for the industry, especially in the retail trading segment.

As head of MIAX Products, Ferraro manages index product relationships and expand the company’s proprietary product offering, with a current focus on Bloomberg equity index derivatives products. He will also continue in his existing role as senior vice president, deputy general counsel at MIAX.

Ferraro joined MIAX in 2016 and played a pivotal role in its 2020 acquisition of MIAX Futures, exclusive index licensing agreement with Bloomberg, and MIAX Futures Onyx trading platform launch.

“Joe’s expert guidance in the acquisition and development of MIAX Futures will continue to help further our proprietary product offering in this expanded role,” Gallagher added.

MIAX reported a 52% increase in its futures and options trading ADV to 67.2 million contracts last month.