This week marked the 16th anniversary of the FIA IDX in London - Walt Lukken, President and CEO of FIA opened the event with a keynote address that touched on the developments and challenges facing the global derivatives market, and particularly the potential impacts of a ‘historic election year’ for Europe, the UK and North America.

The fast-approaching Eid al-Adha holiday, the second of the two main holidays celebrated in Islam that this year begins on June 14, is a timely opportunity to look at another essential element of financial markets reference data - exchange holiday dates.

The global Futures and Options market continues to grow exponentially, year on year, in terms of the absolute number and volumes of F&O instruments issued and traded, and especially the explosive growth in trading activity in newer markets. In the APAC region, for example, futures and options (and other derivatives) trading is gaining huge momentum and represents an increasingly large share of the ‘global derivatives wallet’. It is estimated that this region’s trading volumes doubled in 2023, with particularly significant activity in India and China. In India alone, activity on major exchanges including the National Stock Exchange leapt around 80% in equity-related derivative transactions (and around 30% for energy, agriculture and precious metals).