The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, now referred to as the CME group after its merger with the Chicago Board of Trade in 2007, is the United State’s largest exchange dealing in trading futures and options.

History of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange(CME group)

Established in 1898, the CME group started as the “Chicago Butter and Egg Board” and only offered futures and stocks in the agricultural sector. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange was the first exchange to offer financial futures in the 1970s, closely followed by treasuries, precious metals and many other assets.

However, initially starting out as a non-profit organization, the CME group became public in December 2002. It currently trades several financial instruments (such as currencies, commodities and equities). Over the years, the exchange has purchased a majority stake in many huge exchanges across the United States, including the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) in 2008 and COMEX, making the group the largest futures and options trading exchange in the world.

The CME group is also credited with the introduction of electronic trading through its Globex platform in the late 1980s. In 2017, CME began trading Bitcoin futures – a move that rocked the crypto community as a positive sign towards the global adoption of digital technology currencies.