Abstract
Stock index futures - The first stock index contracts were traded at the Kansas City Board of Trade on February 24, 1982. This introduction was followed (the same year in April) by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). These new contracts were based on the S&P 500 index. These two brand new contracts turned out to be very successful and was appreciated by most institutional investors. Since then, most of the financial markets all around the world offer futures on their indexes.
Definition of a stock index - "An indicator used to measure and report value changes in a selected group of stocks. How a particular stock index tracks the market depends on its composition the sampling of stocks, the weighting of individual stocks, and the method of averaging used to establish an index."
