Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)

Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (CME) is the largest futures exchange in the United States and the second largest exchange in the world for the trading of futures and options on futures.

As a marketplace for global risk management, the exchange brings together buyers and sellers of derivatives products, which trade on the trading floors, on the GLOBEX electronic trading platform and through privately negotiated transactions.

Futures and options provide a way to protect against — and profit from — price changes in financial instruments and physical commodities.

In addition, they own their own clearing house and are able to guarantee, clear and settle every contract traded through the exchange.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) - History

Founded as a not-for-profit corporation in 1898, the CME became the first publicly traded U.S. financial exchange in December 2002 when the Class A shares of it's parent company, Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc., began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol CME. CME Holding is part of the Russell 1000® Index.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange has four major product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange and commodities. In 2002, a record 558.4 million contracts with an underlying value of $328.6 trillion changed hands at CME, representing the largest notional value traded on any futures exchange in the world. In addition, we move about $1.5 billion per day in settlement payments and manage $29.6 billion in collateral deposits.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange has the largest futures and options on futures open interest of any exchange in the world. Open interest is the number of outstanding contracts at the close of the trading day and a leading indicator of liquidity. Liquidity of markets is the ability of a market to quickly and efficiently absorb the execution of large purchases and sales. It is a key component to attracting customers and ensuring a market's success.
 

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