Chicago Mercantile Exchange -- The Chicago Merc should have a bang-up year with its large store of capital, and huge growth potential in currency exchange and swaps.
But the Merc wanted more--to keep its edge in an increasingly competitive (and consolidating) arena.
In September, the Merc will switch on an electronic after-hours trading system developed in France, and next year the French will adopt Merc technology for settling trades.
ECONOMIST: Chicago��s ancient futures exchanges are showing their age
One way to get that effect on the Chicago Merc is to make two trades--one in which you are long dollars and short euros, another in which you are short dollars and long, say, the Swedish krona.
They at times mistook the Merc for the Merchandise Mart, a 4-million-square-foot retail emporium on the Chicago River.
Through an arrangement earlier this year with the New York Mercantile Exchange, the Merc also has a growing business in electronic-trading energy futures, a booming business.
The Merc has agreed to be the exclusive electronic-trading post for Nymex's key oil, gas and gasoline contracts and, eventually, for the metals futures traded in Nymex's Comex division through 2016.
At stake are trades in eurodollar futures--bets on short-term interest rates affecting American dollar deposits outside the U.S.--accounting for 53% of the Merc's overall volume.
The Chicago Merc is part of CME Group, the biggest futures-exchange operator in the U.S., handling an average of 12.5 million contracts a day.
The Merc is shoving its brokers and traders away from the open-cry system.
The Merc has been eager to expand off its traditional strength in interest-rate futures trading.
The little egg club she joined is the now-massive CME Group, which now owns both the Chicago Merc and the New York Merc.
Eurodollar futures and options, where investors hedged or speculated on the interest rate paid on a 90-day deposit of a dollar overseas, were half of the Merc's business, with 1.5 million contracts traded per day.
The Merc's new Globex2, set to launch this fall, can handle 24-hour trading via the Internet.
In 1995 he worked his way onto the then 34-member board, where he got to know Craig Donohue, a Merc lawyer.
Nymex Holdings (nyse: NMX - news - people ), the parent of energy trading giant New York Merc, is slashing costs over the next three months, specifically targeting the population of its trading floor, which has seen volume dwindle as more contracts are traded through an electronic alliance with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (nyse: CME - news - people ).
Merc looks at energy futures trading as a way to diversify and add more volatility to its mix of products--traders love volatility and high daily volumes and so do the exchanges where they operate.
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