Growing futures markets

Azila abdul aziz

Derivatives markets worldwide have experienced a boom in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing volatility this year, as traders and investors increasingly turn to futures as a means to hedge against downside pricing risks.

In just the first six months of 2020, global futures and options trading had grown 32% year-on-year (y-o-y) to a record 21.9 billion contracts, with Asia-Pacific registering the largest increase due to strong interest in the derivatives exchanges in India and China, according to the Futures industry Association’s (FIA) data.