How do Russell 2000 futures settle above High? http://www.cme.com/html.wrap/wrappedpages/end_of_day/daily_settlement_prices/rl.html?h=1 Shows the pit high for the day at 727.25, yet the settlement is 731.50. Also- http://www.cme.com/trading/dta/hist...906&product=RL&venue=TS_F&asset=IDX_F&hour=15 Shows the last time and sales as: 09-06 06/30/06 15:12:26 0072700 09-06 06/30/06 15:13:39 0072650A 09-06 06/30/06 15:14:22 0072650B 09-06 06/30/06 15:14:30 0072725 09-06 06/30/06 15:14:39 0072675 09-06 06/30/06 15:14:50 0072700B, yet the settlement is 731.50
On the last trading day of the month the CME settles index futures contracts at the approx "fair value" premium to cash regardless of what the "tradable" close was.
So that hedgers know EOM what their "real P/L" against physical is. These are cash settled contracts. If you've ever held ES or an SPX option into expiration you'll know that after all's said and done, the value of ES for settlement purposes is the value of the opening prints in individual SPX components regardless of what prices the index is "trading."
That's the way it is. Some instution need to mark their books at the end of the month, so the close of the cash index is basically a fairer approximate value of their portfolio.
Sometimes there isn't a trade in some of the markets during the last part if the trading day. This is more common on the big futures, where you can trade far out contract months. It is also common on russell 2000 and E-MINI mid cap 400 (both pit and electronic, but mainly the pit). The last trade could of been made at approx 3:05 cst and in the final 10 minutes the indexes could of moved in either direction (ie es, nq) And they would use the last bid offer as the settle. In markets like ecbot gold they use the comex settle which is several hrs before the ecbot closes.