FX Futures and Options Prices Moved Sharply in the First Half of 2025 – Will There be More? 

Recent weeks – summer in the northern hemisphere – have been relatively quiet in the foreign exchange (“FX”) markets, but for the year as a whole, 2025 has been significant for FX.  There have been some major price movements, following world events and macro-economic announcements.  

The general overarching trend in the first half of the year was a decline in the value of the U.S. dollar.  Most of CME’s FX Futures and Options are priced in terms of the number of U.S. dollars for one unit of the other currency.  A fall in the value of the dollar therefore means a rise in futures prices.  You can see this in the chart.

In the first six months of 2025, major currencies rose on average 9.9%, despite a decline in April for the Australian dollar (AUD), while the Euro (EUR) and the Swiss franc (CHF) each rose around 14% against the U.S.dollar.

In more recent weeks, this trend seems to have reversed – will this continue?

For updates on recent futures price movements see the Quotes pages for each currency pair on the CME’s Website

Source: CME Group

Why Should You Consider FX Futures and Options For Your Portfolio?

• Transparency:  Futures and options trading takes place on public markets where every price and every order is visible to, and can be traded with by all participants.
• A Marketplace You Can Trust:  CMEs futures and options markets are regulated in the U.S. by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which aims to ensure market integrity and prevent fraud and manipulation.
• Deep Liquidity:  CME’s FX futures and options market is one of the largest centres for foreign exchange liquidity in the world.  On average $96 billion of FX futures and options traded every day in H1 2025.
• Safe and Secure:  CME’s Clearing House backs every transaction – your funds and your profits are safely managed, so you can trade with confidence.
• Superior Efficiency:  With the Clearing House as the counterparty on every futures transaction, the trading process is simplified, and our margin methodology means your capital is used efficiently in your portfolio.

Find Out More About CME’s FX Futures

CME offers futures contracts on 52 different currency pairs.  We recently created a new corner of our website dedicated to our FX products.  Use it as the starting point to discover more:  [link forthcoming, but eg for gold: https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/metals/precious/gold-futures.html#getStarted]

Source: CME Group

Gain Further Insights into CME’s Markets

CME hosts a wide range of educational material on FX futures and options, and a range of other products. From informational videos to in-depth analysis of position hedging , CME’s archive covers a wide range of applications.

The Introduction to FX course are accredited lessons on Foreign Exchange and FX futures markets.  You can find it at http://cmegroup.com/education/courses/introduction-to-fx.html.

Which Data Moves the FX Market?

New analysis from CME’s Research team looks into the impact of a variety of published financial data on the FX market.  

When data is published that differs from the expectation, this can result in substantial price movements and heightened trading activity.   Our analysis takes a rigorous approach to assessing which is the most significant data point for the FX futures market.  You can find this analysis here.