1.   Chicago Board of Trade directors approved plans to trade futures and options contracts based on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, a benchmark for U.S. stocks.

2.   Derivatives are contracts based on or derived from other assets such as bonds, stocks, oil or foreign currencies.

3.   For better or for worse, investors will soon be able to buy options contracts based on mutual fund performance.

4.   For one thing, it is expected to offer contracts based on catastrophes in individual states, rather than broad regions, like the East Coast.

5.   Investors use stock-index arbitrage to profit from widening or narrowing price relationships between certain stock indexes and futures contracts based on those indexes.

6.   Statutes currently outlaw futures contracts based on single stocks, but such contracts on U.S. stocks are available in some overseas markets.

7.   The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today approved new milk futures and options contracts based on the national benchmark price of milk.

8.   The market, the second in Latin America after Brazil, began in September by trading futures contracts based on the Caracas Stock Exchange index.

9.   Venezuela, for example, expects to start trading futures contracts based on its general index as soon as next week.

10.   Simex announced late last month that it would launch futures contracts based on the Singapore, Malaysian and Thai equity markets.