RTS in Moscow launched futures on EUR/USD and EUR/RUR on its Forts derivatives section on February 5. The contracts are miniscule, having a notional of just €1,000, but the EUR/USD future in particular has got off to a flying start. On Tuesday, 142,565 EUR/USD contracts equivalent to $1.8 billion changed hands. This makes it easily the most successful FX contract launched for some time.
A group of local market makers have been supporting the contract and it is said to have attracted good retail participation. The merits of large versus small contracts could be debated at length, but in this case, RTS seems to have come up with a winner. It will be interesting to see if it builds on this early momentum.