THE MAIN FUTURES EXCHANGES

CME GROUP

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) (often called “the Chicago Merc,” or “the Merc”) is an American financial and commodity derivative exchange based in Chicago. The CME was founded in 1898 as the Chicago Butter and Egg Board.

Originally, the exchange was a non-profit organization. The exchange demutualized in November 2000, went public in December 2002, and it merged with the Chicago Board of Trade in July 2007 to become a designated contract market of the CME Group Inc.

CME trades several types of financial instruments: interest rates, equities, currencies, and commodities. It also offers trading in alternative investments such as weather and real estate derivatives.

CME has the largest options and futures contracts open interest (number of contracts outstanding) of any futures exchange in the world.

CME 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.

EUREX

Eurex is one of the world’s leading derivatives exchanges, providing European benchmark derivatives featuring open and low-cost electronic access globally. Its electronic trading and clearing platform offers a broad range of products, and amongst others operates the most liquid fixed income markets.

Eurex was established in 1998 with the merger of Deutsche Terminbörse (DTB, the German derivatives exchange) and SOFFEX (Swiss Options and Financial Futures).

Eurex is considered one of the “big three” derivative exchanges, along with NYSE Euronext Liffe and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. It is owned by Deutsche Börse and SIX Swiss Exchange.

ICE

Launched in 2000 the Intercontinental Exchange with an electronic trading platform that brought more transparency and accessibility to the ‘Over the Counter’ (OTC) energy markets. Soon after, they began evolving in response to customer demand for efficiency, automation and risk management. Today they facility trade in global futures markets, cleared OTC products, data services and clearing houses.