The Emergence of E-minis

The trading of e-minis involves the buying and selling of stock index futures within a single day, or intraday using a computerised system. It involves the use of real-time market data, via the internet, to determine buy and sell signals, and orders that can be placed electronically via the internet with no middleman or broker intervention in the process of order execution.

The “e” in the name stands for electronic, which implies trading does not take place in a trading pit, but rather trade is strictly electronic. The term “mini” refers to the contracts being smaller than the original pit-traded contracts.