[2] Some E-mini contracts provide trading advantages, including high liquidity, greater affordability for individual investors due to lower margin requirements than the full-size contracts, and round-the-clock trading 23.25 hours a day from Sunday afternoon to Friday afternoon.
Most E-mini futures expire quarterly (with the exception of agricultural products), in March, June, September, and December.
An E-mini future symbol is formed by starting with the root symbol and adding the expiration month letter (the same as for futures) and the last digit of the expiration year.
The table below lists some of the more popular E-mini contracts, with the initial and maintenance margins required by CME.
[1] Note that individual brokers may require different margin amounts (also called performance bonds).