What Is the Chicago Mercantile Exchange? (CME)
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is the world’s largest futures and options exchange. It was founded in 1898 as a not-for-profit organization to provide an efficient marketplace for trading agricultural commodities, such as wheat, corn, oats, barley and rye. Over time it has grown to include financial products such as stock index futures and foreign currency contracts. The CME also offers electronic trading platforms that allow traders from around the globe to access its markets 24 hours a day.
Today, the CME Group Inc., which includes both the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), trades more than 3 billion contracts annually with a total value of over $1 quadrillion dollars. This makes it one of the most important exchanges in global finance today. In addition to providing liquidity for investors worldwide, CME also provides educational resources on derivatives markets through its website and other outlets.