Equities indexes, even they gather the basket of stocks (equities) cannot be traded directly on the stock market. Furthermore, such trading vehicles as ETF (Exchange Traded Funds), index options on ETFs, index futures, ETFs futures were developed to provide opportunity to invest into indexes.

Equity index futures are futures where the underlying commodity is a stock index or ETF. Dow Jones industrial futures, S&P 500 futures, Russell 2000 futures are examples of index futures. QQQ futures and SPY futures are examples of ETFs futures. Index and ETFs futures are the same as other futures on the stock market, and essentially they are traded in the same way as all other futures (currency and commodity futures).

Since the indexes cover the companies from the index basket and index price is based on the prices of the shares of these public companies, as a rule, index futures settlement is done in cash rather than delivery of underlying stock certificates. Which mean that under expiration (on expiry/settlement date), instead of delivery, an index future contracts holder will have his/her trading account adjusted by profit or loss.

QQQ Futures - PowerShares QQQ Futures (QQQ)

IWM Futures - ishares Russell 2000 Index Fund Futures (IWM)

SPDRs Futures - Standard & Poor's Depository Receipts Futures (SPY)

FTSE/XINHUA China 25 - EFXN FTSE/XINHUA China 25 Futures (FXN)

MSCI EAFE - EFE MSCI EAFE Futures (EFE)

MSCI Emerging Markets - EMI MSCI Emerging Markets Futures (EMI)

Nikkei 225 Yen Futures - Nikkei 225 Yen Futures (NIY)

Nikkei 225 Dollar Futures - Nikkei 225 Dollar Futures (NK)

S&P Asia 50 - PA S&P Asia 50 Futures (PA)

Dow Jones Real Estate Futures - Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate Index Futures (RX)

Big Dow Futures - Big Dow DJIA Index Futures (DD)

Dow - YM Dow Futures (YM)

DJIA Futures - DJIA Index Futures (ZD)

NASDAQ - QCN NASDAQ Composite futures (QCN)

NASDAQ 100 - NQ NASDAQ 100 Futures (NQ)

NASDAQ 100 Futures - NASDAQ 100 Index Futures (ND)

NASDAQ Biotechnology - BIO NASDAQ Biotechnology futures (BIO)

S&P 400 Futures - S&P 400 MidCap futures (MD)

S&P 400 - ME S&P 400 MidCap futures (ME)

S&P - ES S&P 500 futures (ES)

S&P Futures - S&P 500 futures (SP)

S&P 500/Citigroup Growth Futures - S&P 500/Citigroup Growth futures (SG)

S&P 500/Citigroup Value Futures - S&P 500/Citigroup Value futures (SU)

S&P 600 - SMC S&P 600 SmallCap futures (SMC)

S&P 600 Futures - S&P 600 SmallCap futures (SMP)

Financial SPCTR - Financial SPCTR futures (FIN)

Technology SPCTR - Technology SPCTR Futures (TEC)