A futures contract offered by Deutsche Börse, the Futures Mini DAX and Futures Micro DAX give investors the opportunity to bet on changes in the DAX index (Deutscher Aktienindex), made up of 40 of the largest companies listed in Germany. Launched to meet demand from individual traders and small investors in particular, the Future Mini DAX is a smaller version of the standard Future DAX. It allows participation in the futures market with a smaller financial commitment thanks to a smaller contract size and initial margin; one Future Mini DAX contract represents one tenth of the value of the standard DAX futures contract. The Future Micro DAX is a smaller version of the Future DAX Mini; one Future Micro DAX contract represents one tenth of the value of the Future DAX Mini, or one hundredth of the standard Future DAX contract.<Traded on Eurex, Europe's largest futures and options exchange, the DAX Mini Future offers traders the liquidity and flexibility they need to speculate on movements in the DAX index and/or hedge against fluctuations in the German stock market. Because of the leverage involved, however, investors need to be particularly vigilant and adopt a precise risk management strategy. Although smaller in size than the standard contract, Mini and Micro contracts can also lead to large losses if there is no stop-loss, if volatility rises and/or if a large number of contracts are bought.