S&P 500 futures launch button from first day of trading in 1982 at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Also shown are buttons given out to promote more traders to spend 15 minutes trying to trade the contract, buttons promoting the launch of options on the S&P contract and the button from the first day of trading the E-mini S&P 500 contract
The standard sized S&P 500 futures contract will be delisted on Friday, September 17, 2021 and it will close an era for that specific contract which was first listed in 1982. Liquidity has long transitioned over to the E-mini S&P contract, which was launched in 1997, so it’s more of a nostalgic closure than anything that has bearing on market function. Although the contract did launch to some decent volumes, a rival stock index futures contract from the NYFE had the potential to draw liquidity away from the CME’s S&P 500 contract so Merc executives Melamed & Sander requested after launch that established traders from other trading pits spend 15 minutes a day trading in the S&P pit to nurture liquidity.
These pinback buttons were given out only to those on the trading floor for a single day on the launch of a contract, so it can be thought of as a type of ‘rookie card’ for a futures contract, but way more scarce. Pictured in the upper left is the original button that was given out on the day of the S&P 500 trading and was based upon the STP oil logo. The upper middle and right buttons are the ones which were give out to remind traders to spend 15 minutes each day trading the S&P contract. The bottom ‘Pac Man’ buttons are from the launch of S&P 500 options on futures in 1983. For good measure, I also included the launch button from the E-mini S&P contract in 1997.
***I also need to note that there’s been some spam issues in the blog that continue to be addressed. This website doesn’t promote, sell or endorse anything that has to do with anything that can ever make money so if you ever come across something along those lines, it should obviously be considered spam. It’s always been my intention to keep this website purely about old trading pit history and zero to do with my or any current trading.***