CME Joins Battle for Retail Bond Traders With Micro Futures (1)

CME Group Inc., whose Treasury futures already dominate among pros, is now trying to lure small traders by offering simpler-to-understand contracts that focus on the numbers the masses care most about anyway: yields.

The contracts, when they begin trading on Aug. 16, will rise when Treasury yields increase and fall when they decline -- whereas the existing futures move in the same direction as bond prices, a byzantine turnoff for many investors. The Micro Treasury Yield futures, which will compete with a similar set of products introduced last year by The Small Exchange, will come in 2-, 5-, 10- ...