CME Group

In the 19th century, Chicago’s butter and egg trade was served by the Chicago Produce Exchange, founded in 1874. In 1895 butter and egg dealers formed a Butter and Egg Board within that exchange to improve price setting; after a feud between the butter merchants and the margarine makers, the butter-and-egg men walked out in February 1898 and formed their own organization, the Chicago Butter and Egg Board, the forerunner of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.⁠[1][1][1][1]

In 1919 a group of egg dealers persuaded the Butter and Egg Board to amend its rules to allow organized futures trading and to create a new organization; because members expected to trade commodities beyond butter and eggs, it was named the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). The board was dissolved that October and CME was launched the next day, beginning butter and egg futures trading in December, when three contracts traded in less than an hour.⁠[1][1][1][1]

CME initially recorded bids and offers on chalkboards and did not introduce a trading pit until 1945. Government controls during World War II nearly halted futures trading, with no egg futures traded in 1942 and 1943; after the war the exchange added turkey, dressed poultry and other farm contracts. In 1958, after onion growers lobbied Congress, onion futures trading was banned, costing CME its second-largest contract and leaving it essentially a one-commodity exchange trading eggs.⁠[1][1][1][1][1][1]

In 1961 CME launched frozen pork belly futures, the first futures contract related to frozen, stored meats, and in 1964 live cattle futures, the first futures contract based on a nonstorable commodity. A group of younger traders known as the Broker’s Club launched a reform drive in 1967; in January 1968 a new chairman took office and the exchange adopted new bylaws, and this group would lead the move into financial markets.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

In the early 1970s CME engaged economist Milton Friedman to write a paper on the feasibility of foreign currency futures. In 1972 CME introduced the first financial futures market, trading futures on seven foreign currencies; its International Monetary Market soon added gold and other precious metals as well as U.S. Treasury bills.⁠[1][1][1]

CME launched Eurodollar futures in 1981 and S&P 500 Index futures in 1982, both of which drew heavy trading. In September 1987 it announced plans for an after-hours electronic trading system, which met opposition from older members worried about the open outcry system and took years to develop.⁠[1][1][1][1]

In January 1989 federal agents served subpoenas on 40 CME and Chicago Board of Trade traders, the culmination of an FBI undercover operation to find out whether traders were defrauding customers: four agents wearing recording devices had infiltrated CME’s trading pit, befriended traders and recorded them. Scores of traders and brokers were then indicted, most pleading guilty within two years and the rest going to jury trial; CME spent the 1990s on reforms to repair its reputation.⁠[1][1][1][1]

The renamed after-hours electronic trading system, Globex, went live in 1992, and the nearly round-the-clock Globex2 followed in 1998. During the same period CME launched E-mini S&P 500 contracts, much smaller than the standard contract and the first product of their kind to trade electronically during regular trading hours on a U.S. exchange.⁠[1][1][1]

To raise money for electronic trading infrastructure, CME decided to become the first U.S. financial exchange to demutualize. In 2000 CME memberships were converted into shares that could be traded separately from trading rights, and in August 2001 the parent company Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. was formed.⁠[1][1][1][2]

In April 2002 former trader Terry DuffyTerry DuffyTerry Duffy (Terrence A. Duffy) is an American exchange executive and the chairman and chief executive officer of CME Group. Raised on Chicago’s South Side, he started out as a trader in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange pits in the early 1980s, became chairman in 2002 and led the exchange’s IPO and its combinations with the Chicago Board of Trade, NYMEX and NEX; under a transition plan announced in June 2026, he is to become executive chairman in 2027.Open the full entry became chairman of CME and CME Holdings. That December the holding company completed an initial public offering that raised $191 million for CME and selling stockholders and listed on the New York Stock Exchange, making CME the first publicly traded exchange in the United States.⁠[2][1][1]

On July 12, 2007, CBOT Holdings, parent of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), merged into Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings, which was renamed CME Group Inc. in connection with the merger. Duffy had been executive chairman since October 2006.⁠[3][2]

On August 22, 2008, CME Group completed its acquisition of NYMEX Holdings, parent of the New York Mercantile Exchange, adding energy and metals; NYMEX Holdings stockholders could elect $81.16 in cash or 0.2378 shares of CME Group Class A stock per share. The combined company kept its headquarters at 20 S. Wacker Drive in Chicago, with its New York office at NYMEX’s world headquarters. Executive Chairman Duffy said the combined company would continue operating the largest and most diverse derivatives exchange in the world; the chief executive was Craig Donohue.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][4][4]

In May 2012 Duffy became executive chairman and president of CME Group, and from November 2016 he served as chairman and chief executive officer.⁠[2][2]

On February 21, 2013, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) sued NYMEX and two former employees, William Byrnes and Christopher Curtin, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The complaint alleged that the two, who worked on the CME ClearPort Facilitation Desk, repeatedly disclosed nonpublic customer information such as trade details and counterparty identities to a commodity broker between 2008 and 2010; after a market participant complained in July 2009, a NYMEX managing director identified the employee but did not question him, and the disclosures continued for more than a year until Byrnes was fired in December 2010.⁠[5][5][5][5][5][5][5]

On August 4, 2020, the court entered a consent order finding the two former employees directly liable and NYMEX vicariously liable for their misconduct, imposing a $4 million civil penalty jointly and severally on the three and permanently banning the two former employees from trading commodity interests. The CFTC said it was the first time it had charged an exchange over disclosures of material non-public information by exchange employees.⁠[6][6][6][6]

On January 15, 2014, certain CME Group Class B shareholders and CBOT Class B members filed a putative class action in the Circuit Court of Cook County against CME Group and CBOT, alleging that violations of the core rights granted in the companies’ certificates of incorporation amounted to breach of contract and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. The court certified a damages-only class in December 2021; after a three-week trial, the jury returned a unanimous verdict for the defendants on all counts on July 25, 2025, and the plaintiffs then moved for a new trial.⁠[7][7][7][7][7]

On November 2, 2018, CME Group completed its acquisition of London-based NEX Group plc, expanding into cash and over-the-counter markets; the NEX name was retired, but BrokerTec, EBS, Traiana and TriOptima continued as sub-brands, and London became CME Group’s European headquarters. The company expected annual cost savings of $200 million by the end of 2021.⁠[8][8][8][8]

At the end of 2018 CME Group had about 4,590 employees and owned a 27% interest in S&P/Dow Jones Indices.⁠[9][9]

On November 4, 2021, CME Group and Google Cloud announced a ten-year strategic partnership under which CME Group would migrate its technology infrastructure to Google Cloud beginning the following year, starting with data and clearing services and eventually moving all of its markets to the cloud; Google also made a $1 billion equity investment in CME Group.⁠[10][10][10]

CME Group’s joint venture with FanDuel, part of Flutter Entertainment, launched a prediction markets app for retail customers in December 2025, offering simplified event contracts on major financial and economic benchmarks and sporting events.⁠[7][7][7]

In 2025 CME Group futures and options had record average daily volume of 28.1 million contracts, with a third consecutive year of records in interest rates and records in agricultural, energy and metals products. Revenue for the year was $6.5206 billion and net income attributable to CME Group was $4.0722 billion; at year-end it had about 3,875 employees worldwide.⁠[7][7][7][7][7]

In its 2026 proxy statement CME Group sought shareholder approval to eliminate the right of Class B shareholders to elect six directors. At the May 14 annual meeting, the Class B classes lacked a quorum and the proposals were adjourned to June 9; at the reconvened meeting, the proposals to eliminate the rights of Class B-1 to elect three directors and Class B-2 to elect two directors failed for lack of a majority of each class, and Class B-3 did not reach a quorum.⁠[2][11][11][12][12][12]

On June 11, 2026, CME Group announced a 10-barrel WTI crude oil futures contract that would trade 24 hours a day, seven days a week, pending regulatory review, with a planned launch on August 30. The cash-settled contract, to be listed on NYMEX, was 1/100 the size of the benchmark WTI crude oil futures and one-tenth the size of Micro WTI crude oil futures, and would have been CME’s first energy contract available for 24/7 trading.⁠[13][13][13]

On June 22 the CFTC requested public comment on whether extending standard futures contracts, including crude oil, to 24/7 trading was appropriate; on July 8, during the comment period, CME self-certified the contract and separately filed for Commission review and approval. On July 9 the CFTC stayed the self-certified listing under 17 C.F.R. 40.2(c), barring CME from listing the contract until the Commission determined it complied with the Commodity Exchange Act. CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig said CME’s decision to disregard the Commission’s effort to undertake a reasoned analysis of the critical issues was “wholly inappropriate.” The CFTC later extended the comment period by 30 days to August 26.⁠[14][14][14][14][14][14][13]

The American Petroleum Institute told the CFTC that continuous trading would strain weekend staffing, complicate commercial hedging and potentially trigger margin or collateral demands outside regular business hours, and that it could distort WTI pricing.⁠[15][15]

On June 17, 2026, CME Group announced that Chairman and CEO Terry Duffy would become executive chairman and that President and CFO Lynne C. Fitzpatrick would succeed him as CEO and join the board, effective on the later of March 1, 2027, and the filing of the company’s 2026 annual report; Duffy would serve as executive chairman through December 31, 2027. Fitzpatrick joined the company in 2006, became CFO in April 2023 and added the title of president in November 2024.⁠[16][16][16][16][16][16][16][16]

On September 9, 2026, the company announced that Chief Accounting Officer Jack Tobin would become deputy CFO on November 2 and CFO in March 2027 upon Fitzpatrick’s transition, and that Matthew Render, formerly head of financial reporting at Citadel, would succeed him as chief accounting officer.⁠[17][17][17][17]

CME Group already offered 24/7 trading for certain event contracts and planned to extend it to its entire crypto suite from the second quarter of 2026; crypto futures moved to round-the-clock trading in the second quarter. Its 1-Ounce Gold futures began 24/7 trading on July 24, with nearly 15,000 contracts traded over the first weekend, and in August the company said 100-Ounce Silver futures would follow from September 11, subject to regulatory review.⁠[7][7][15][13][13]

On October 2, 2026, CME Group announced it was withdrawing its filing to list the 10-barrel crude oil futures contract. Chairman and CEO Duffy said the contract had been intended as a transparent alternative under CFTC oversight to energy products, such as onshore prediction markets and offshore perpetuals, that already trade around the clock, mainly for retail participants; but after extensive conversations with the industry, the company had determined that key constituents were concerned that introducing 24/7 energy trading without further due diligence could create unintended consequences and add risk to the marketplace, so it was withdrawing the filing for now. He added that he hoped the CFTC would address the inequity, restore a level playing field and ensure all derivatives products meet the core principles of the Commodity Exchange Act.⁠[18][18][18][18][18][18][18][19]

CME Group is a Delaware holding company whose subsidiaries include four designated contract markets, CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX, as well as NEX Group; its products span interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, agricultural commodities, energy, metals and cryptocurrencies and trade mainly on the CME Globex electronic platform, with SOFR options still traded by open outcry in Chicago. It also runs the BrokerTec fixed income and EBS spot FX platforms and operates the CME Clearing clearing house; its Class A shares are listed on Nasdaq under the symbol CME.⁠[7][7][7][7][7][7]

The company’s Class B common stock is tied to memberships in specific divisions of the CME exchange, is not publicly listed, can be transferred only together with the associated trading rights, and entitles holders to elect six directors. The company is headquartered at 20 South Wacker Drive in Chicago, with its European headquarters in London.⁠[7][7][7][7][7]

CME Group: Official website: https://www.cmegroup.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[20][7]

X: Public account: https://x.com/CMEGroup (opens in a new window)⁠[20]