Record-breaking surge: weekend trading on the Moscow Exchange derivatives market exceeded 1.7 trillion rubles
In the first year of weekend trading sessions on the Moscow Exchange derivatives market, the total trading turnover of futures and options reached an impressive 1.7 trillion rubles. This figure is not just statistics, but a marker of a fundamental shift in investor behavior, who are increasingly using non-working days for risk hedging and speculative strategies.
Trading on Saturdays and Sundays launched on August 16, 2025, and within a year the exchange summed up the first results. Over 12 months, the share of trades executed on weekends averaged 3.8% of the volume of the main trading session. At first glance, the figure is modest, but it reflects sustained demand from more than 215 thousand unique clients who took advantage of the new opportunity.
Peak Activity and Popular Instruments
The maximum turnover was recorded on February 28, 2026, when participants executed trades worth 82.6 billion rubles — an absolute record in the history of the additional session. Notably, since July 18, 2026, currency futures became available on weekends. In less than a month, their turnover on non-working days reached 34 billion rubles, indicating the high demand for this particular class of instruments.
Among client favorites are Brent crude oil futures, gold, and the MOEX Index. Also in the top were perpetual futures on the MOEX Index, natural gas contracts, the RTS Index, QQQ ETF Trust units, as well as mini-contracts on the MOEX Index and Brent oil. Such diversification confirms that investors are seeking not only local but also global opportunities for profit.
The main goal of expanding trading hours is to give participants the ability to instantly react to events happening around the world when major venues are closed. Derivatives market instruments allow participation in price movements not only of Russian assets but also of popular global instruments, whose activity peaks occur at different times of the day.
New Horizons for Retail Investors
Weekend trades take place from 09:50 to 19:00: the first ten minutes are allocated to the opening auction, followed by the trading period. Investors can work with all futures and calendar spreads, while options are available only in the negotiated mode, where liquidity is supported by market makers.
The exchange is not stopping at what has been achieved. From September 14, the main session will start an hour earlier — at 9:00, and its duration will increase to 10 hours. The changes will affect the stock, derivatives, currency markets, and the precious metals market. This is a logical continuation of the strategy to expand access to trading, especially against the backdrop of growing retail activity: in July, private investors invested 142.9 billion rubles in securities, and their share in stock trades reached 63.3%.
My analysis: The growth in weekend turnover is not a temporary trend but a structural change. Investors increasingly perceive the market as a round-the-clock organism, and venues that fail to adapt risk losing clients. Expanding trading hours, especially through currency and commodity futures, makes the Moscow Exchange more competitive against global platforms, although full parity with foreign counterparts is still far off.