Robinhood starts rolling out flagship CME futures

CME Group on Wednesday said “over the coming weeks” all eligible Robinhood customers in the US will have access to the US group's futures products in equity indices, cryptocurrencies, foreign exchange (FX), metals and energy.

“We are extremely pleased to offer some of our most popular futures contracts to the broad network of retail traders on Robinhood. Demand for futures has skyrocketed as a new generation of self-directed traders is seeking diversified investment opportunities,” said CME chief commercial officer Julie Winkler.

“Expanding retail access to futures trading is an integral step in educating and empowering this new crop of investors, and we look forward to working with Robinhood to continue providing the products and resources needed to tap into today's most important markets.”

CME said the futures products being made available include those that refer to US equity indices the S&P 500, the Nasdaq-100, the Russell 2000 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average; the cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ether; the CME Group's “major” FX currency pairs; metals such as gold, silver and copper; and energy futures on crude oil and natural gas.

“Launching CME Group futures is a significant step forward in our mission to make Robinhood the best place for active traders,” said Robinhood vice president and general manager of futures and international JB Mackenzie.

“We're rolling out an elegant new mobile trading ladder that we built from scratch and allows customers to trade simply and efficiently at the speed of a tap. This reimagined experience, coupled with some of the lowest fees in the industry, makes trading futures at Robinhood an easy decision.”

In October, Cboe said Robinhood customers will “soon” be able to trade the US exchange's index options, including the US options exchange's flagship S&P 500 Index (SPX) options, Volatility Index (VIX) options, Russell 2000 Index (RUT) options and Mini SPX (XSP) options.

In November, Frankfurt-based Eurex told a roundtable in London the German group is working to improve retail investor demand across Europe.