Single Stock Futures: CME's New Contracts

Single stock futures are exchange-traded contracts to buy or sell a fixed number of shares of one company at an agreed price on a set future date. On July 27, 2026, CME Group listed a fresh set, the first on a major US exchange since OneChicago closed in 2020: 55 standard contracts on 100 shares and 22 micro contracts on 10 shares, all cash-settled to the stock's official closing price and tradable about 23 hours a day. SpaceX is on the list and is the worked example below.

What did CME list on July 27, 2026?

SpaceX had been public for about six weeks when its contract went live alongside names drawn from the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq-100. As of September 2026, CME's contract specification page sets the terms below and remains the reference for anything you trade.

• Contract unit: 100 shares per standard contract, 10 per micro.
• Settlement: cash, to the stock's official closing price on its primary exchange.
• Expirations: two consecutive quarterly months (March, June, September, December); trading ends on the third Friday of the contract month.
• Minimum price increment: $0.01 per share, or $1.00 per standard contract and $0.10 per micro.
• Trading hours: CME Globex from 6:00 p.m. ET Sunday through 5:00 p.m. ET Friday, with a one-hour maintenance break each day at 5:00 p.m. ET.

The 23-hour clock is the headline change from every prior US attempt: a SpaceX future trades at 2:00 a.m. ET on a Tuesday, when the stock has no session at all. Contract codes follow CME's usual root-plus-month-plus-year form (see how to read a futures symbol).

How is a single stock future priced?

A futures price is the spot price adjusted for the cost of carrying the shares to expiry, not a forecast. Cash tied up in the shares would otherwise earn interest, and that financing is added; whoever holds the shares collects any dividend before expiry and the futures long does not, so the expected payout is subtracted. Written out, futures price = spot + financing cost - expected dividends.

Take SpaceX at a purely illustrative $100 a share (a round number, not a quote). Its listing prospectus states that it does not expect to pay cash dividends for the foreseeable future, so the dividend leg is zero. The panel below runs the arithmetic at a 4% annual financing rate, next to a hypothetical stock at the same $100 with a $0.50 dividend going ex before expiry.

SELECT
    days_to_expiry,
    round(100 * 0.04 * days_to_expiry / 365, 2) AS financing_usd,
    round(100 + 100 * 0.04 * days_to_expiry / 365, 2) AS fair_price_no_dividend,
    round(100 + 100 * 0.04 * days_to_expiry / 365 - 0.50, 2) AS fair_price_with_050_dividend
FROM (SELECT arrayJoin([30, 60, 90, 180, 365]) AS days_to_expiry)
ORDER BY days_to_expiry

At 90 days the carry is about $0.99, for a fair futures price near $100.99. The dividend-paying stock prices near $100.49 instead, and on its ex-dividend date the stock opens lower by the payout while the future, which already carried it, does not move. The basis (the gap between futures and spot) shrinks to zero into expiry, so a contract held to the end pays the full financing leg even if the stock goes nowhere.

How does margin on a security future differ from Reg T?

Buying shares on margin is a loan: under the Federal Reserve's Regulation T a broker can lend at most 50% of a purchase, and the borrowed half accrues interest at the broker's margin rate. FINRA's maintenance minimum is 25%.

A security future is not a loan. Nothing is borrowed, so no interest is charged; the financing sits inside the price. Margin here is a performance bond against adverse moves, and its minimum is set by a joint SEC and CFTC rule (SEC Rule 403, CFTC Regulation 41.45): 15% of the contract's current market value for each long or short position, as both initial and maintenance level. That floor was 20% from 2002 until the two agencies cut it, effective December 24, 2020. CME's Rule 930 adopts the 15% figure, with lower requirements for recognized offsets.

The next panel puts those percentages side by side on the illustrative SpaceX contract, 100 shares at $100, or $10,000 of notional.

SELECT
    regime,
    margin_pct,
    round(10000 * margin_pct / 100, 0) AS deposit_usd,
    round(100 / margin_pct, 1) AS leverage_x
FROM (
    SELECT 'Reg T initial' AS regime, 50 AS margin_pct
    UNION ALL SELECT 'Reg T maintenance', 25
    UNION ALL SELECT 'OneChicago era floor', 20
    UNION ALL SELECT 'CME security futures floor', 15
)
ORDER BY margin_pct DESC

Reg T asks $5,000 up front; the security-futures floor asks $1,500, roughly 6.7 times leverage against 2 times. It cuts both ways: a 15% move against the position consumes the entire $1,500 deposit. This is a flat percentage of notional, not the risk-model (SPAN-style) margin on index futures, which floats with volatility and often sits well below 15%. Daily settlement works as on any future; see how futures margin works and, for the securities side, Reg T versus portfolio margin.

Are single stock futures taxed 60/40 like index futures?

No. Section 1256 of the Internal Revenue Code gives regulated futures contracts and broad-based index options the blended 60/40 treatment, 60% of any gain long-term and 40% short-term whatever the holding period. Section 1256(b)(2)(A) then excludes "any securities futures contract or option on such a contract unless such contract or option is a dealer securities futures contract." A retail trader is not a dealer, so a CME single stock future sits outside Section 1256 entirely.

Section 1234B fills the gap: gain or loss on a securities futures contract takes the character of the underlying stock, which for an investor means capital gain or loss, long-term only if the contract itself was held more than a year. A contract to sell (a short) is always short-term under Section 1234B(b). The wash-sale rule in Section 1091 reaches securities futures contracts by name. See why index options are taxed 60/40 for where that line was drawn. None of this is tax advice.

Single stock futures versus shares versus options

Against owning the shares, a futures long gives up four things: the dividend, the vote, an open-ended holding period, and the 50% Reg T deposit. In exchange it gets the 15% floor and the 23-hour session. The contract also expires: with two quarterly months listed, a year-long position is rolled three times, each roll a spread between the expiring month and the next (see continuous futures contracts). A position carried to expiry becomes a final cash credit or debit, with no shares arriving.

Against options, the difference is shape. A call option loses value as time passes (theta) and moves with implied volatility as well as with the stock; a future has neither, paying a straight $1 per standard contract for every cent the stock moves. That linearity is also the risk: a call buyer's loss is capped at the premium, while a futures long or short has no such cap, and the 15% deposit is the first 15% of loss, not the last.

Why did OneChicago's single stock futures fail?

The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 lifted a ban that dated to 1982, and US single stock futures began trading on November 8, 2002. OneChicago carried the product for almost eighteen years and held its last session on September 18, 2020. Five conditions held for its whole run: physical delivery, with an expiring long receiving 100 shares through the Options Clearing Corporation; daytime hours only; a 20% margin floor for its entire life, with the cut to 15% taking effect three months after the last trade; the same tax carve-out described above; and dual SEC and CFTC registration for every broker, which few retail brokers took on.

Three of those five conditions are different in 2026. The new contracts settle in cash, with no delivery and no borrow. They trade 23 hours a day on Globex. The 15% floor was in place before the first trade. Retail futures access is also far wider than in 2002. The tax carve-out and the dual regime have not moved. Whether that mix changes the outcome is an open question; our coverage of the SpaceX lockup expiration and the SpaceX Nasdaq-100 index add tracks the stock those first contracts settle against.

FAQ

What is a single stock future?

An exchange-traded contract to buy or sell a set number of shares of one company at an agreed price on a fixed date. CME's contracts cover 100 shares (standard) or 10 (micro) and settle in cash to the official closing price on the third Friday of the contract month.

Do single stock futures pay dividends?

No. A futures long never receives the dividend and never votes; the expected payout is subtracted from the futures price instead. A futures short does not owe a dividend the way a short seller of the stock does.

How much margin do single stock futures require?

Joint SEC and CFTC rules set a minimum of 15% of the contract's current market value for each long or short position, as both initial and maintenance margin. Brokers can require more. Buying the shares under Regulation T takes 50% up front.

Are single stock futures taxed 60/40 like index futures?

No. Section 1256(b)(2)(A) excludes securities futures contracts from the 60/40 rule unless they are dealer contracts; under Section 1234B, gains take the character of the underlying stock, and a short position is always short-term.

The terms above are a September 2026 snapshot; CME's specification page is the live reference. The carry and margin arithmetic above runs as plain SQL on the Strasmore terminal.