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Chicago Mercantile Exchange

Logo: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons4

American financial and commodity derivative exchange

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME; often called "the Chicago Merc", or "the Merc") is an American derivatives marketplace based in Chicago, Illinois, and located at 20 South Wacker Drive. The CME was founded in 1898 as the Chicago Butter and Egg Board, an agricultural commodities exchange. For most of its history, the exchange was in the then-common form of a nonprofit organization, owned by members of the exchange.2 It is part of CME Group.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1898Founded1
  • Industryservice1
  • HeadquartersChicago1
  • Websitewww.cme.com
  • Legal formCorporation3
  • LEISNZ2OJLFK8MNNCLQOF393
  • StatusActive3
  • LEI statusIssued and current3
  • Registered addressC/O THE CORPORATION TRUST COMPANY, 19801 Wilmington, United States3
  • Registered withDivision of Corporations, Department of State, 31519253

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Cme building aerial view
Photo: CME Group/Henry Delforn/Allan Schoenberg, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons6

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME; often called "the Chicago Merc", or "the Merc") is an American derivatives marketplace based in Chicago, Illinois, and located at 20 South Wacker Drive.2

Corporate structure

Chicago Mercantile Exchange is part of a group headed by CME Group. 72 entities, 14 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

  • CME Group Chicago, Illinois, United States
    • Chicago Mercantile Exchange Chicago, Illinois, United States
      • Chicago Mercantile Exchange (Floor) Subsidiary · Chicago, United States
      • CME Swaps Markets (CBOT) Subsidiary · United States
      • CME Swaps Markets (CME) Subsidiary · United States
      • CME Swaps Markets (Comex) Subsidiary · United States
      • CME Swaps Markets (Nymex) Subsidiary · United States
      • Globex Trading System Subsidiary · United States
      • Index And Options Market Subsidiary · United States
      • International Monetary Market Subsidiary · United States
    • New York Mercantile Exchange New York, New York, United States
      • New York Commodities Exchange Subsidiary · United States
      • New York Mercantile Exchange - Energy Markets Subsidiary · United States
      • New York Mercantile Exchange - OTC Markets Subsidiary · United States
    • NEX Group London, United Kingdom
      • CME GROUP BENCHMARK ADMINISTRATION LIMITED Subsidiary · London, United Kingdom
    • Chicago Board of Trade Subsidiary · Chicago
      • Chicago Board Of Trade (Floor) Subsidiary · United States
    • Kansas City Board of Trade Subsidiary · Kansas City
    • S&P Dow Jones Indices Subsidiary · Princeton
      • S&P 400 Subsidiary · United States
    • BOARD OF TRADE OF THE CITY OF CHICAGO, INC. Subsidiary · Chicago, Illinois, United States
    • BROKERTEC AMERICAS LLC Subsidiary · New York, New York, United States
    • BROKERTEC EUROPE LIMITED Subsidiary · London, United Kingdom
    • BrokerTec Holdings Inc. Subsidiary · Delaware, United States
    • Chicago Mercantile Exchange Korea Inc. Subsidiary · South Korea
    • CME AMSTERDAM B.V. Subsidiary · Amsterdam, Netherlands
    • CME Clearing Europe Subsidiary · United Kingdom
    • CME Consulting (Beijing) Co. Ltd. Subsidiary · China
    • CME Finance Holdings Limited Subsidiary · United Kingdom
    • CME Group Asia Holdings Pte. Ltd. Subsidiary · Singapore
    • CME Group Benchmark Administrative Limited Subsidiary · United Kingdom
    • CME Group Hong Kong Limited Subsidiary · Hong Kong
    • CME Group Index Services LLC Subsidiary · Delaware, United States
    • CME Group Japan Kabushiki Kaisha Subsidiary · Japan
    • CME Group Marketing Canada Inc. Subsidiary · British Columbia, Canada
    • CME Group Singapore Operations Pte. Ltd. Subsidiary · Singapore
    • CME Group Strategic Investments LLC Subsidiary · Delaware, United States
    • CME India Holdings LLC Subsidiary · Delaware, United States
    • CME INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED Subsidiary · Bangalore, India
    • and 32 more

Built from parent and subsidiary links from GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (CC0); subsidiaries listed in Exhibit 21 of annual reports filed with the SEC; subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0). Each entity in the chart links to its source.

Products and brands

  • futures contract

Listed on Wikidata.1

Trading platforms

Trading is conducted in two methods; an open outcry format and the CME Globex electronic system. More than 90 percent of total volume at the exchange occurs electronically on CME Globex.

Open outcry

Operating during regular trading hours (RTH), the open outcry method consists of floor traders standing in a trading pit to call out orders, prices, and quantities of a particular commodity or its derivatives. Different colored jackets are worn by the traders to indicate what firm they are a part of. In addition, complex hand signals (called Arb) are used. These hand signals were first used in the 1970s. Today, however, headsets are also used by the brokers to communicate with the traders. The pits are areas of the floor that are lowered to facilitate communication, somewhat like a miniature amphitheater. The pits can be raised and lowered depending on trading volume. To an onlooker, the open outcry system can look chaotic and confusing, but in reality, the system is a tried and true method of accurate and efficient trading. An illustrated project to record the hand signal language used in CME's trading pits has been compiled.

CME Group announced in 2021 that it will permanently close most of its physical trading pits, including those for grain trading. They had been closed since March 2020 due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Electronic trading

Operating virtually around the clock, today the CME Globex Trading System is at the heart of CME. Proposed in 1987, it was introduced in 1992 as the first global electronic trading platform for futures contracts. This fully electronic trading system allows market participants to trade from booths at the exchange or while sitting in a home or office thousands of miles away. On October 19, 2004, the one billionth (1,000,000,000) transaction was recorded.

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When CME Globex was first launched, it used Reuters' technology and network. September 1998 saw the launch of the second generation of CME Globex using a modified version of the NSC trading system, developed by Paris Bourse for the MATIF (now Euronext).

Traders connect to CME Globex via Market Data Protocol (MDP) and iLink 2.0 for order routing.

Products

Chicago Mercantile Exchange was known as the Chicago Butter and Egg Board when it was founded in 1898, and futures available through the exchange were initially limited to agricultural products. In 1919 the Board was restructured and the name changed to Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which reflected a new focus on commodities beyond butter and eggs, including potatoes, onions, and cheese. In 1972, CME introduced the first financial futures market, offering contracts on seven foreign currencies. By the 2000s, CME had expanded to offer four core financial instruments: commodities, foreign exchange, interest rates, and stock indexes. As of 2022, CME operates under CME Group, which offers a number of derivatives products, including commodities, equity indices, foreign exchange, interest rates, and weather.

For example, as of 2017, agricultural contracts were offered on products such as wheat, corn, soybeans, and lean hogs. In metal futures, the CME trades precious metals, base metals, and ferrous metals. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange is the only market for trading in weather derivatives. It launched its first weather products in 1999. Products include, but are not limited to: futures on rainfall, snowfall, hurricanes, and temperature.

From Wikipedia’s article on Chicago Mercantile Exchange, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5

Subsidiaries and ownership

Parent company

Owners

Subsidiaries

  • CME Swaps Markets (CBOT)
  • CME Swaps Markets (CME)
  • CME Swaps Markets (Comex)
  • CME Swaps Markets (Nymex)
  • Chicago Mercantile Exchange (Floor)
  • Globex Trading System
  • Index And Options Market
  • International Monetary Market
  • New York Mercantile Exchange

From Wikidata.1

Acquisitions

On October 17, 2006, Chicago Mercantile Exchange announced a merger with the Chicago Board of Trade in an $8 billion deal. Shareholders of both companies approved the merger on July 9, 2007, and the deal closed on July 12, 2007. The overarching holding company then launched as CME Group. On January 13, 2008, electronic trading at the Chicago Board of Trade shifted onto CME Globex.

From Wikipedia’s article on Chicago Mercantile Exchange, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5

Timeline

  1. Jan 1, 2024Parent Directly consolidated by CME Group3
  2. 1898Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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