You lot should stop bitching you don't know how good you got it. In the great land of OZ we pay $11 round trip/futures contract and $4.40 round trip per options contract on index. Oh yea did I mention you can't close or open any option positions in the first half hour of trade. (Apparently only insto's can as they need a bit more of an advantage)
Adjusting for inflation and contract notional value, for me, trading e-mini futures is probably cheaper than it has ever been, unless things are going up massively in 2025 that is? When I first started trading e-minis in 2004, 1 ES contract had a notional value of around $50,000, today it has a notional value of over $300,000. In 2004 I paid Interactive Brokers, $5 dollars all-in, for the privilege of trading 1 ES (when it had a $50,000 notional value). These days AMP charge me $4 to trade what is now $300,000 notional. I will say e-micros cost a lot more to trade compared to the e-minis, round trip fees for trading 10 MES micros costs $12 dollars now. Which is 3 times the cost compared to 1 ES, it used to be 2 times the cost a few years ago. Level 1/top of book non pro data fees for CME via AMP are just $3 a month per exchange which is nothing compared to ICE who charge retail $135. How much are retail CME fees increasing by in 2025?
Historical Exchange Fees Watch the evolution of fees at CME Group with downloadable historical schedules for trading and clearing Exchange fees. Historical schedules are available for the current year-to-date and previous years listed. Historical Fees - CME Group It's worst when you consider how they chopped the SP from $500 to $250 to $50 a point all while increasing the minimum TICK size from .05 to .10 to the current .25 it's criminal activity on full display. I bet over half the traders on ET never knew how it was.. When S&P 500 futures were around $500 per point, the tick size was 0.05 points (equivalent to $25 per tick). When the price was around $250 per point, the tick size was 0.10 points (equivalent to $25 per tick). Currently, with the S&P 500 futures at $50 per point, the tick size is 0.25 points (equivalent to $12.50 per tick). Also think these altcoins trade uninterrupted 24/7 nonstop and the data is pure and FREE. Trading altcoins is also commission free if you price in your order accordingly. Most young traders are trading either forex or altcoins now, futures has become an old man's game. Where like "FIVE MONKEYS IN A CAGE" we keep trading a stupid dying predatory market who's time has come and gone like the PIT!
A 0.25 point spread when the index is trading at 6000pts is smaller than a 0.1 spread when the index was trading at 1000pts, and smaller than the 0.05 spread when the index was trading at 100pts back in 1982 when it was introduced. Would you prefer a wider tick size for ES for your type of trading? Like a 1point spread?
Where is it stated data is throttled? Anyone can pay to subscribe to real-time data or have DMA depending on clearer. That being said there are firms paying ~100mil year gross fees.
They should have renamed it histories it's such a dinosaur trading vehicle. As soon as they actually stopped delivering product as intended it became obsolete. Only good for crypto now... 4X is next. Options will follow suit if they don't start requiring delivery versus passing the hot potato.