For emerging capital markets, making a decision to introduce a derivatives market is not easy. Many officials of emerging markets are cautious in opening their derivatives markets because of their large influence on the underlying cash markets. The expression a tail wagging the dog is often found in describing how derivatives trading can impact underlying cash trading. Many studies have investigated the conditions and criteria under which a derivatives market can be successfully established in a country. In this paper we put together these conditions and synthesized into eight different determinants that could be used as a benchmark to see if a market is ready to launch financial derivatives products. They are economic background, political climate, legal and regulatory framework, infrastructure, capital market development, investors, and products traded, education and feasibility study. The Korean and Indonesian markets were selected as examples of a successful and a unsuccessful cases in launching derivatives. The market success criteria was the trading volume. We also selected the Turkish market as an independent case. The Turkish derivatives market is relatively new and located in a different geographical zone. Then each determinant was compared for Korea, Turkey and Indonesia to see if there is any remarkable difference in the three markets. We find that Korea and Turkey were able to meet the requirements while Indonesia was not as its economy and stock market were not in the solid growth path and the political climate was unstable. It is important for emerging market stakeholders to understand what it takes for a derivatives market to be successful and hopefully emerging countries which have not yet established their own derivatives market, would seriously consider examining whether their respective markets meet the above mentioned determinants.