Osaka Exchange, a subsidiary of Japan Exchange Group (JPX), listed six new products such as“Nikkei 225 micro futures”,“Nikkei 225 mini options”“Unsecured call Tokyo over-night average rate , 3-month TONA futures”, etc. and started their transactions on May 29.
Purpose of their listing is to meet the retail investment needs centering on individual investors, and as a result, nominal amounts of Nikkei 225 micro futures transaction and Nikkei 225 mini options transaction are made smaller, one tenth of nominal amounts of the conventional Nikkei 225 mini futures transaction and Nikkei 225 options transaction respectively. The other products listed newly are “S&P/JPX 500 ESG score tilted index futures”, “FTSE JPX net zero Japan 500 index futures” and “Nikkei climate 1.5℃ target index futures”. They are added newly from the viewpoint of ESG－Environment, Social and Governance－and SDGs－Sustainable Development Goals, too.

As to the trading situation on the first trading day, May 29, the trading volume of Nikkei 225 micro futures was 4,757 and its trading value was about 1,491,000,000 yen. The conventional Nikkei 225 mini futures was about 1,300,000 of trading volume and about 4,078,700,000,000 yen of trading value, so the new transaction became a quiet start. However, at “The Investment Strategy Fair EXPO 2023” held at Pacifico Yokohama North last March, many individual investors visited the booth set up by JPX to introduce the new products. Most investors who were listening intently to the booth staffs were seen, so their interest in retail investment product is assumed to be very high.

The trading volume of Nikkei 225 mini options was 19,049 (put: 11,243, call: 7,806) and its trading value was about 187,000,000 yen. Although the numbers are still far from the level of the conventional transaction, Nikkei 225 options: 150,000 of trading volume and 33,600,000,000 yen of trading value, the situation will change depending on promotion activities from now on.
3-month TONA futures was 2,782 of trading volume and 69,569,000,000 yen of trading value. It is defined as call rate relating to unsecured Tokyo over-night interest rate calculated by weighting and averaging the rates of transactions subject to the calculation based on explanation of “Statistics on Call Money Market”published by Bank of Japan.
Since 2022, attention to Japanese yen interest has been increasing extremely, so attractiveness of the transaction is likely to be high as risk hedging product against interest rate fluctuation.
As to the other three products, there was no trading volume on May 29. (The table above: the trading volumes of the new products from May 29 to 31, presented by JPX)

About listing of the new products, the president, Ryusuke Yokoyama of Osaka Exchange comments “Recent years, on the background of retail investment in the physical markets, needs to more detailed risk management measures are getting high. Therefore, we introduced two products that make trading unit of Nikkei 225 mini and Nikkei 225 options smaller and one tenth of nominal amount respectively. Therefore, as wide range of products from retail to large investment are prepared, we hope that investors who have various purposes use our futures and options transactions and that more vitalization of our markets will be brought about”.

（Futures Tribune・issued May 30, 2023・no.3218）