Published on: 2026-08-17
Source: Moscow Exchange –
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
A year ago, on August 16, 2025, the Moscow Exchange’s derivatives market gained the option to trade on weekends. Since then, more than 215,000 clients have taken advantage of the opportunity to make deals with futures and options on Saturdays and Sundays. The total trading volume on weekends in the derivatives market over this period has exceeded 1.7 trillion rubles.
The share of trading on weekends averaged 3.8% of the main trading session volume over the year. The highest trading volume was recorded on February 28, 2026, and amounted to 82.6 billion rubles.
Starting from July 18, 2026, currency futures transactions became available on weekends as well. Since the launch, the trading volume of currency derivatives on weekends has reached 34 billion rubles.
Most often, clients made deals on weekends with Brent crude oil futures (BR), gold (GOLD), the Moscow Exchange Index (MIX), perpetual futures on the Moscow Exchange Index (IMOEXF), natural gas contracts (NG), the RTS Index (RTS), investment units of the QQQ ETF Trust (NASD), the mini Moscow Exchange Index (MXI), and mini contracts on Brent crude oil.
Maria Patrikeeva, Managing Director of the Derivatives Market at the Moscow Exchange:
“The main goal of extending trading hours is to provide our clients with the opportunity to respond at any moment to events affecting the prices of a wide variety of assets. And we see that this is a service in demand by the market. Derivatives market instruments allow participation in price movements not only of Russian assets but also of the most popular instruments traded worldwide, whose peaks in trading activity occur at different times of the day. These include commodity instruments, digital assets, as well as various foreign securities, including units of global investment funds and shares of major foreign companies.”
Trading on weekends in the derivatives market takes place from 09:50 to 19:00 (09:50–10:00 – opening auction, 10:00–19:00 – trading period) and is conducted as part of an additional weekend session, which is part of the trading day following the weekend.
Investors can make transactions with all futures and calendar spreads in all trading modes. Options trading is available only in directed mode. Liquidity in trading is supported by market makers.
Moscow Exchange Derivatives Market– the leading platform for trading derivative financial instruments in Russia and Eastern European countries, combining developed infrastructure, reliability and guarantees, as well as the most advanced futures and options trading technologies. Today, the Moscow Exchange derivatives market trades 41 stock options, three currency options, a gold option, an index option, and more than 160 futures and options contracts based on stock indices, stocks, currency pairs, precious and industrial metals, oil, gas, and other commodities, and interest rates.
Please note; This information is raw content obtained directly from the information source. It is an accurate report of what the source claims and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.