CME Group recently launched its US Zinc futures contract. As another addition to CME’s metals offering, the contract provides a new physically delivered hedging and trading instrument for a critical industrial metal used across global infrastructure, manufacturing, and automotive supply chains.
"The successful launch of our US Zinc futures contract reflects strong demand from market participants for a cash-settled, transparent tool to manage price risk in the domestic zinc market," Jin Henning, Managing Director and Head of Metals at CME Group, commented. "This new offering provides enhanced price discovery and liquidity for commercial hedging, while offering financial participants access to a critical industrial commodity."
What Futures Traders Are Trading: The Micro Revolution
In the exchange-traded futures market, retail participation has been supported by the rapid growth of Micro futures contracts. Standard commodity contracts often require substantial margin deposits and carry relatively high tick values, making them less accessible to smaller accounts. Micro contracts, typically much smaller than their standard counterparts, have lowered capital requirements while maintaining the transparency and liquidity of exchange-traded markets.
| Existing CME Base & Industrial Metals Futures Contracts |
| Alumina |
| Aluminum |
| Copper |
| Lead |
| Zinc |
| Source: CME |
The retail futures story gained momentum with Micro Gold (MGC), which became a popular contract among retail traders looking for more precise control over their exposure. Building on MGC's success, Micro Silver (SIL) also attracted retail interest, particularly during periods of strong price volatility.
- Edgewater Markets Sees Significant Uptick in Precious Metals Volume
- CME Group To Launch Precious Metals Spread and Ratio Futures Contracts
- STARTRADER Launches 24/7 Gold Trading as Broker 'After-Hours' Race Heats Up
Current CFD Broker Offerings: Beyond XAU and XAG
How does this compare with the over-the-counter (OTC) retail brokerage market? A review of leading multi-asset CFD brokers, such as IC Markets, TMGM, and XTB, shows a clear difference between the availability of precious metals and industrial commodities. While gold and silver remain standard products across most CFD platforms, access to metals such as copper, aluminium, zinc, and nickel varies considerably between brokers.
Broker | Precious Metals Available |
IC Markets | Gold, Silver, Palladium, Platinum |
TMGM | Gold, Silver, Platinum |
XTB | Gold, Silver, Palladium, Platinum, Zinc |
Most top-tier FX/CFD brokers prominently offer spot gold and silver, often alongside platinum and palladium. Outside precious metals, copper is also widely available across major platforms as a standard non-ferrous commodity CFD.
However, specific base metals such as zinc, lead, and nickel remain largely confined to institutional venues, including the London Metal Exchange (LME) and CME, or specialist brokers, rather than mainstream MT4/MT5 product offerings. Among the three top brokers reviewed by us, only XTB offers Zinc trading.
More of the analysis, with full data, can be found at the FM Intelligence portal:
