The Share Price Index (SPI) is a futures contract based on the Australian S&P ASX 200 Index (XJO) and is the benchmark equity index futures contract for investors, index trading and hedging in the Australian equity market. The SPI Futures price reflects the market’s opinion of where the S&P ASX 200 Index will close at expiry (which is generally the third Thursday of each settlement month).
The SPI is ideal for hedging/insuring a portfolio of shares, but also provides a fantastic product to trade in any volatile market.
Trading the SPI
On the ASX, the most popular futures trading instrument is the ASX SPI 200™ index futures contract over the S&P/ASX 200 index.
Index trading, such as trading SPI CFDs or futures, is a great way to trade the direction of the overall Australian market, & provides exposure to Australia’s top 200 companies without having to buy or sell shares in every company in the index.
The SPI futures contract, unlike the share market, trades overnight so any overseas influences on our domestic market affect trading overnight in the futures contract. SPI traders can therefore enter, exit or alter their trades at almost any time of the day or night. Full trading times can be viewed via our ASX SPI 200 Futures Trading Hours page.
The quality and pricing of SPI trading instruments/accounts can vary considerably and therefore we have thoroughly researched a wide variety of SPI trading products, from both futures brokers and CFD brokers, and found what we believe is the standout ‘best of breed’ SPI instrument for anyone trading the SPI …
Click to view our TradeDirect365 index trading account review (2023)
UPDATE: Trade the AUS 200 for just 0.9 FIXED spread. Lowest cost indices for Australian traders.
The Australian Equities Market
With a market capitalisation of over A$1.5 trillion, the Australian cash equities market is consistently weighted in global indices (MSCI and S&P/Citigroup Global Equities Indices BMI) among the top eight equity markets in the world. Among Asia Pacific stock markets it is second only to Japan in terms of free float market capitalisation. Source: ASX
The S&P/ASX 200 Index
ASX SPI 200 Futures are based on the S&P/ASX 200 Index which comprises the S&P/ASX 100 plus an additional 100 stocks listed on the Australian market. It is recognised as the investable benchmark for the Australian equities market and covers approximately 87% of the market capitalisation of listed securities in Australia. Source: ASX
The SPI 200 is ranked in the top 10 equity index contracts in Asia in terms of traded volume, and is therefore a great instrument for Australian index traders.
