Moscow Exchange derivatives market: a year of weekend trading brought turnover of 1.7 trillion rubles
In the first year of the Moscow Exchange derivatives market operating on weekends, total trading turnover exceeded 1.7 trillion rubles. More than 215,000 clients took advantage of the opportunity to trade futures and options on Saturdays and Sundays. This is an impressive figure that confirms: investors are actively adapting to the new format and value the flexibility of access to instruments.
First Year: Figures and Records
Weekend trading launched on August 16, 2025, and exactly one year later, the exchange summed up the initial results. On average over 12 months, the share of trades executed on Saturdays and Sundays accounted for 3.8% of the main trading session volume. At first glance, the figure seems modest, but for a new format it is a significant result, especially given the specifics of liquidity.
The peak of activity came on February 28, 2026, when participants executed trades worth 82.6 billion rubles. That day became an absolute record for the entire period of the additional session. Since July 18, 2026, currency futures were added to trading, and in less than a month, their turnover on non-working days reached 34 billion rubles.
The most sought-after instruments were Brent crude oil futures, gold, and the Moscow Exchange Index. The list of popular assets also included perpetual futures on the Moscow Exchange Index, natural gas contracts, the RTS Index, QQQ ETF Trust units, mini-futures on the Moscow Exchange Index, and mini-contracts on Brent crude oil. This is a clear signal: investors are seeking not only local but also global opportunities for hedging and speculation.
Expansion Logic and New Horizons
The main goal of launching weekend trading is to give participants the ability to respond to events at any moment when the main session has already closed and foreign exchanges continue to operate. 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.
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 resting on its laurels. 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 equity, derivatives, currency markets, and the precious metals market. This is a logical continuation of the strategy to expand access to trading, which is already bearing fruit: in July, retail investors poured 142.9 billion rubles into securities, and their share in equity trades reached 63.3%.
My view: the growth in weekend turnover is not just statistics but a marker of market maturity. Investors are increasingly perceiving derivatives as a full-fledged risk management tool, not only as a way to profit from intraday volatility. Extending trading hours will likely spur interest in currency and commodity futures, making the market even more integrated with global trends.