Financial Markets and Institutions (2-downloads)

Stock Index Futures

The prices for stock index futures contracts are pub-

lished daily. In the 

Wall Street Journal, these prices

are found in the section “Futures Prices” under the

“Index” heading. An excerpt from this listing is repro-

duced here.

Information for each contract is given in columns,

as follows. (The June S&P 500 Index contract is used

as an example.)

Open: Opening price; each point corresponds to

$250 times the index—1117.9; that is, 1117.9 

⫻

$250 = $279,475 per contract

High: Highest traded price that day—1122.8, or

$280,700 per contract

Low: Lowest traded price that day—1099, or

$274,750 per contract

Settle: Settlement price, the closing price that day—

109.9, or $277,750 per contract

Chg: Change in the settlement price from the previ-

ous trading day—–8.8 points, or –$2,200 per

contract

Open Interest: Number of contracts outstanding—

295,895, or a total value of $82.2 billion 

(= 295,895 

⫻ $277,750).

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