CME Grouprecently launched its US Zinc futures contract. As another addition toCME’s metals offering, the contract provides a new physically delivered hedgingand trading instrument for a critical industrial metal used across globalinfrastructure, manufacturing, and automotive supply chains."Thesuccessful launch of our US Zinc futures contract reflects strong demand frommarket participants for a cash-settled, transparent tool to manage price riskin the domestic zinc market," Jin Henning, Managing Director and Head of Metals at CME Group, commented. "This new offering provides enhanced pricediscovery and liquidity for commercial hedging, while offering financialparticipants access to a critical industrial commodity."WhatFutures Traders Are Trading: The Micro RevolutionIn theexchange-traded futures market, retail participation has been supported by therapid growth of Micro futures contracts. Standard commodity contracts oftenrequire substantial margin deposits and carry relatively high tick values,making them less accessible to smaller accounts. Micro contracts, typicallymuch smaller than their standard counterparts, have lowered capitalrequirements while maintaining the transparency and liquidity ofexchange-traded markets. The retailfutures story gained momentum with Micro Gold (MGC), which became a popularcontract among retail traders looking for more precise control over theirexposure. Building on MGC's success, Micro Silver (SIL) also attracted retailinterest, particularly during periods of strong price volatility.[#highlighted-links#] CurrentCFD Broker Offerings: Beyond XAU and XAGHow doesthis compare with the over-the-counter (OTC) retail brokerage market? A reviewof leading multi-asset CFD brokers, such as IC Markets, TMGM, and XTB, shows aclear difference between the availability of precious metals and industrialcommodities. While gold and silver remain standard products across most CFDplatforms, access to metals such as copper, aluminium, zinc, and nickel variesconsiderably between brokers.Mosttop-tier FX/CFD brokers prominently offer spot gold and silver, often alongsideplatinum and palladium. Outside precious metals, copper is also widelyavailable across major platforms as a standard non-ferrous commodity CFD.However,specific base metals such as zinc, lead, and nickel remain largely confined toinstitutional venues, including the London Metal Exchange (LME) and CME, orspecialist brokers, rather than mainstream MT4/MT5 product offerings. Among thethree top brokers reviewed by us, only XTB offers Zinc trading.More of theanalysis, with full data, can be found at the FM Intelligence portal:This article was written by Sylwester Majewski at www.financemagnates.com.