S&P Futures and Indices
Along with Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 is another popular index and is also regarded as the "market". Similar to DOW, which has Dow futures, or futures products based on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, so does the S&P 500. In fact, there are numerous indices bearing the S&P mark, with the S&P 500 being one.
Standard & Poor's
As you may have figured out from the heading above, the S&P acronym stands for Standard & Poor's. Prior to knowing the history behind the naming of the Standard & Poor, I thought it was probably named on the basis of Standard of quality of life and poverty, or "standard" companies - which are "good and healthy" companies and poor companies - which are in financial distress. I was also unsatisfied with these two explanations, as it didn't really make any sense to call them Standard & Poor's, when there are be so many better alternatives for healthy and sick companies or quality of life. After digging around, I came to know that that the Poor in S&P is actually the last name of the individual named Henry Varnum Poor, who was a financial analyst.
Standard & Poor's Indices
As said in the opening paragraph, there are numerous indices bearing Standard & Poor's name, with S&P 500 being the most popular. There are S&P indices for equity, fixed income, commodities, real estate, thematic, and strategy sectors. One of the most popular S&P equity index that almost everyone in the financial industry is aware is the S&P 500. The S&P indices for equity can be based on geographical basis. For example, there is S&P Japan Midcap 100, which comprises of 100 companies from the mid cap area of Japan. The S&P 500 as you all know covers large cap publicly traded companies in US, and as the title suggests has 500 companies in the index. S&P indices for equity can also be based on the size of the companies; as such you can have S&P MidCap, SmallCap, and LargeCap industries.
S&P Futures
With so many indices, you can have numerous futures products based on these indices, that can be traded. Similar to Dow futures, which offers E-Mini Dow, S&P has similar futures products. The E-Mini S&P 500 futures product comes in 2 variants, the Dollar Variant which is priced in dollars, and the Euro variant - which is priced in euros. Unlike Dow Futures which has a $5 multiple, the S&P E-Mini has a $50 or 50€ symbol depending on version of the contract being traded. The S&P 500 futures contract unlike the E-Mini has a $250 multiple. So, every rise in 1 point equals a rise of $250 in value. Other S&P futures that can be traded include E-Mini S&P MidCap 400 futures, S&P SmallCap 600 futures, E-Mini S&P Asia 50 futures, and S&P Depository Receipts futures.
Natural Gas Futures is another article I wrote on futures, and if you have the time, I would suggest you give it a read.
S&P Futures
