Futures and Options

Overview

The Futures and Options (FO) service provides timely and accurate information on exchange-traded futures and options contract specifications. It includes all the important fields for trading such as contract name, contract code, contract size, tick size and value, strike price, expiration date, and delivery details.

In conjunction with EDI’s Reference Data, FO enables users to perform quick and accurate reference checks on derivatives. The Reference Data describes key identifiers for each contract (ISIN, SEDOL, FIGI/BBGID, AII, OSI symbol, and MIC code) and indicates the underlying instrument, expiry date, strike price, and exercise style.

Together, these datasets provide a complete view of both contract specifications and their reference identifiers, ensuring that researchers can link each derivative to its corresponding underlying security and pricing history.

Key Concepts

About Derivatives

A derivative is a financial instrument whose price depends upon or is derived from one or more underlying assets. It represents an agreement between two or more parties, where the value of the derivative is determined by fluctuations in the price of the underlying asset (such as an equity, index, interest rate, or commodity).

In this context, derivatives include both futures and options contracts:

• A futures contract is a standardized agreement between two parties to buy or sell a specific quantity of an asset at a predetermined price and date in the future.
• An option contract gives the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a specific underlying asset or future at a fixed price by or before a specified date.

Types of Derivatives Covered

• Commodity Derivatives Products based on agricultural, energy, or metal commodities. Contracts are standardized to buy or sell a given quantity at a fixed price and future date.
• Equity Derivatives Products whose value is linked to individual equities or stock indices. These include options and futures on shares, ETFs, and indices.
• FX Derivatives Also known as foreign exchange derivatives, these include contracts based on currency pairs. They represent agreements between two parties to deliver or receive an amount of currency at a fixed rate and date.
• Interest Rate Derivatives Contracts based on movements in interest rates, including interest rate futures, swaps, and options on fixed-income instruments.

Usage and Applications

The FOCS dataset allows users to:

• Access standardized specifications for all exchange-traded derivatives.
• Integrate contract-level information into trading systems and analytics workflows.
• Identify contract attributes such as expiry, tick size, strike price, and delivery style.
• Distinguish derivatives by underlying asset class (commodity, equity, FX, or interest rate).
• Support research and model calibration through consistent reference metadata.

Relationship to Other EDI Data

The Futures and Options dataset captures how each derivative contract is structured — its unit, tick size, expiry, strike, and delivery terms.

The Reference Data file provides the identifiers and underlying links that describe what the contract is — including standardized market codes (ISIN, OSI, MIC) and the attributes of the underlying asset.

When used together:

• FO → structural and trading specifications
  • Reference Data → identifiers, underlying, and classification metadata

This pairing supports complete contract-level tracking and historical analysis of derivatives across asset classes and exchanges.