The Moscow Exchange continues to aggressively scale up its derivatives market. In September, the platform is launching 20 new one-day cash-settled futures with auto-rollover on shares of leading U.S. corporations. Trading will start in two phases — September 8 and 15. This is a strategic move that dramatically expands opportunities for Russian investors seeking exposure to the Western market without having to enter foreign jurisdictions.
Launch structure and underlying assets
In the first phase, on September 8, trading will begin on futures for AMD, TSLA, Apple, Sandisk, Coherent, Nebius, Robinhood, Amazon, Netflix, and Lumentum. A week later, on September 15, contracts on Coinbase, Carvana, CrowdStrike, DoorDash, Palo Alto Networks, Super Micro Computer, Uber, Boston Scientific, Chipotle, and Lululemon will be added. Splitting the launch across two dates is a well-thought-out decision that allows market participants to smoothly adapt to the new instruments and assess the liquidity of the first ten.
The contract mechanics are fully transparent: quotes reflect the value of the corresponding fixings of foreign shares in U.S. dollars. Settlements are carried out according to the specification, where parameters K1 and K2 are set at 0% and 0.35%, respectively. The calculation of fixings on the platform began back on July 27. It is based on data on transaction prices for foreign assets on overseas exchanges, with the final value derived as the arithmetic mean of transaction prices and updated every 15 seconds during the trading session.
Growing demand and liquidity
Interest in perpetual instruments on the Moscow Exchange shows a steady upward trend. The open interest volume for perpetual contracts has grown by 36% over the year, exceeding 450 billion rubles. More than 60,000 clients execute trades with such contracts monthly. Notably, demand is driven not only by professional traders but also by retail investors, who see this instrument as a simple and legal way to diversify.
Maria Patrikeeva, Managing Director of the Derivatives Market, emphasizes that the launch of 20 new instruments will significantly expand the range of available investment strategies. This should also support further liquidity growth in the Russian derivatives market, which already trades 11 perpetual futures on currencies, Moscow Exchange indices and government bonds, precious metals, as well as Russian and foreign securities.
Synergy with the crypto market and new formats
In parallel, the platform is also developing its crypto direction: in September, the Moscow Exchange is launching its first two perpetual futures on Bitcoin and Ethereum indices. The digital asset lineup is planned to be expanded to ten. Perpetual contracts on foreign stocks fit organically into this cycle of derivatives market expansion, creating a unified ecosystem for trading both traditional and digital assets.
Additionally, the exchange is actively attracting new issuers, preparing the first listing of a SPAC company from the IT sector, and is also considering bringing Russian video game developers to the stock market. Against the backdrop of this expansion, the Central Bank is strengthening control over market integrity, having recently uncovered manipulations with OGK-2 shares under a pump and dump scheme.
My analysis: The launch of perpetual futures on U.S. stocks is not just an expansion of the product line, but a systemic response to demand that cannot be met by traditional instruments due to sanctions restrictions. For investors, this is an opportunity to hedge risks and speculate on the dynamics of global giants within the ruble perimeter. However, one should keep in mind the currency component and volatility, which can significantly affect the final returns of such positions.