Many Changes to S&P 500 Futures Contract and Related Options

Al and Richard – the question that follows the listed information below does not meet the comment rules for Al's daily and weekly reports blogs. Consider if it would be worth mentioning at least the identified contract changes and/or provide any perspective Al may have on Al's daily and weekly blogs since most traders view these two blogs the most. Maybe it is no big deal, but I have difficulty understanding any impact to trading the E-mini S&P 500 Stock Price Index Futures (ES).

CME Group published Special Executive Report SER # 8776 on May 20, 2021

SUBJECT: Various Amendments to the S&P 500 Stock Price Index Futures, E-mini S&P 500 Stock Price Index Futures and Related Options Contracts and Addition of Block Trade Eligibility to Options on E-mini S&P 500 Stock Price Index Futures.

Notable items

• Effective June 6, 2021, CME will cease contract and options listing for the S&P 500 (“BIG”) Futures contract beyond trade date September 17, 2021.

• Effective June 6, 2021, CME increases E-mini S&P 500 Futures consecutive quarterly contract listings from 5 to 9 consecutive quarterly contracts plus three additional December contracts.

• Effective June 6, 2021, Weekly Options on E-mini S&P 500 Futures – Week 3 ONLY (EW3). CME increases the nearest non-quarterly months from three to nine nearest non-quarterly months.

Question: can Al or Richard provide any perspective or analysis regarding if these changes to the E-mini S&P 500 Futures will change liquidity and/or volatility in the E-mini S&P 500 Futures. I don’t know enough about options to make a competent conclusion but am assuming the addition of more available consecutive strike prices may change liquidity and/or volatility in the underlying E-mini S&P 500 Futures contract that Al trades and discusses in his daily and weekly blogs.

Would appreciate your perspective and correcting any poor observations.

Thank you very much if you have time to provide feedback.