Research Library / Instruments
Instruments
DAX futures provide exposure to the DAX, Germany's principal blue-chip equity index. Eurex lists the complex in three sizes — the full-size FDAX contract, Mini-DAX (FDXM) and Micro-DAX (FDXS) — and all three are cash settled.
Iron Ledger has a live research model for Micro-DAX (FDXS). The model applies systematic trading research to the DAX futures market and provides defined trade information directly on the chart.
The DAX is Germany's principal blue-chip equity index. It tracks the country's largest and most liquid listed companies and is the benchmark most often used to describe the German equity market.
The DAX is a calculated number, not a tradable instrument. Exposure to it is taken through derivatives — the futures contracts described on this page, among others.
Eurex lists the DAX future in three sizes. Each has its own point value and minimum price change, so the same move in the index is worth a different amount in each contract.
| DAX future (full size) | FDAX | EUR 25 per index point · 1 point = EUR 25 |
| Mini-DAX future | FDXM | EUR 5 per index point · 1 point = EUR 5 |
| Micro-DAX future | FDXS | EUR 1 per index point · 1 point = EUR 1 |
These are contract specifications, not a recommendation about position size or risk.
DAX futures sit within the Eurex equity-index futures range alongside contracts on other European benchmarks. The underlying indices are different:
Each is a separate market. Iron Ledger keeps a separate research record for each rather than treating a result from one as evidence for another.
On a regular trading day, pre-trading begins at 01:00 CET (02:00 CEST during summer time) and continuous trading runs from 01:10 CET (02:10 CEST) through to 22:00 CET/CEST. On the final trading day of the expiring contract, trading ends early, at 13:00 CET.
The exchange publishes the current schedule and any holiday changes — see the trading-hours reference linked under Sources below.
DAX futures run on the quarterly cycle — March, June, September and December. The full-size FDAX and the Mini-DAX FDXM are listed further ahead than the smallest contract, out to twelve quarterly months; Micro-DAX (FDXS) trades the three nearest quarterly months. The exchange's contract page, linked below, lists the maturities currently open.
DAX futures are cash settled, so no shares change hands — the position is closed against a cash amount. Settlement is payable on the first exchange day following the final settlement day.
The final settlement day is also the last trading day, and normally falls on the third Friday of the maturity month. If that Friday is not an exchange day, the exchange day immediately before it is used instead.
The settlement price is set from the underlying index, using Xetra auction prices of the index constituents.
DAX futures are not simply a market we describe. Iron Ledger runs a live research model on Micro-DAX (FDXS). The model operates during the Frankfurt session and uses systematic research to identify defined trading conditions in the Micro-DAX market.
What the model does not attempt is to forecast the DAX. The question it answers is narrower and more testable: does a repeatable statistical edge exist in this market under defined conditions, and does the evidence still justify the model being live? Where it does not, that is recorded rather than re-narrated.
The chart is the execution layer; the research behind it is the product.
The current Iron Ledger Micro-DAX (FDXS) research record covers October 2025 through August 2026. Results are stated in index points.
This is the complete eleven-month research window used for the published record. Individual monthly results are shown on the Micro-DAX model page rather than reproduced here.
The current Iron Ledger Mini-DAX (FDXM) research record covers October 2025 through August 2026. Results are stated in index points.
This is the complete eleven-month research window used for the published record. Individual monthly results are shown on the Mini-DAX model page rather than reproduced here.
Hypothetical performance results have many inherent limitations, some of which are described below. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those shown. In fact, there are frequently sharp differences between hypothetical performance results and the actual results subsequently achieved by any particular trading program. One of the limitations of hypothetical performance results is that they are generally prepared with the benefit of hindsight. In addition, hypothetical trading does not involve financial risk, and no hypothetical trading record can completely account for the impact of financial risk in actual trading. For example, the ability to withstand losses or to adhere to a particular trading program in spite of trading losses are material points which can also adversely affect actual trading results. There are numerous other factors related to the markets in general or to the implementation of any specific trading program which cannot be fully accounted for in the preparation of hypothetical performance results and all of which can adversely affect actual trading results. Fees, slippage and live execution may differ. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
View the complete Micro-DAX research record →
The DAX is an index — a calculated number. A DAX future is a contract that tracks it. They move together, but they are not the same instrument and the index itself cannot be traded.
FDAX, FDXM and FDXS reference the same index, but they are separate contracts with different point values. A result measured on one is not a result for another.
DAX futures, EURO STOXX 50 futures and SMI futures all trade on Eurex, but they track different markets, with different hours and different participants. Evidence from one is not evidence for the next.
Contract size changes the arithmetic, not the market. The index move is identical whichever contract you watch — what changes is only the value the contract assigns to each point.
Contract information on this page is based on current Eurex specifications for DAX futures. Information about the DAX index is based on material published by Deutsche Börse. Iron Ledger paraphrases these sources rather than reproducing their specifications or tables.