OneChicago Announces Trading of Single Stock Futures on ETFs

OneChicago, LLC, the all-electronic exchange for trading Single Stock Futures (SSFs), a synthetic stock lending and financing tool, today launched the trading of two additional SSFs on exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Reported by Rebecca Moore

According to a company announcement, trading began on SSFs of PowerShares QQQ (Nasdaq: QQQQ) and the iShares Russell 2000 (NYSE: IWM). Other OneChicago SSFs on ETFs include the DIAMONDS Trust Series 1 and the Sector Select SPDR Fund.

David G. Downey, CEO of OneChicago, noted in the announcement that “these new listings permit approved portfolio margining customers to realize substantial savings on initial margin requirements for hedged positions utilizing broad based index futures.” The QQQQ and IWM trade with a 1000 multiplier.

OneChicago provides a Comparison Calculator, which enables users to compare the costs of buying stocks on margin against the returns for using equivalent SSF positions. The calculator can be found at http://www.onechicago.com.

The OneChicago Exchange lists 492 futures on single stocks, five Exchange Traded Funds -including 1 ETF of the 100 share size, and seven ETFs of the 1,000-share size – as well as 10 OneChicago Select Indexes, a series of customer-designed narrow-based security index futures.