CME Group History Timeline

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Timeline History of the CME Group

Early Years

1848: CBOT creates the world’s first futures exchange, based in Chicago.

1851: CBOT offers earliest of "forward contracts" ever recorded; forward contracts begin to gain popularity among merchants and processors.

1865: CBOT formalizes grain trading with the development of standardized agreements called "futures contracts", world’s first such agreements.

1865: CBOT creates world’s first futures clearing operation when it begins requiring performance bonds, (or margin), to be posted by buyers and sellers in its grain markets.

1870: CBOT develops first octagonal futures trading pit.

1877: Trading in CBOT grain complex (corn, oats and wheat futures) is launched.

1885: To accommodate rapid growth of futures trading, CBOT constructs a new building at LaSalle and Jackson streets, at the time Chicago’s tallest building and first commercial structure with electric lights.

1898: Chicago Butter and Egg Board, predecessor of Chicago Mercantile Exchange, opens in Chicago.

20th Century

1919: Chicago Butter and Egg Board becomes Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

1926: CBOT founds Board of Trade Clearing Corporation to guarantee its trades.

1961: CME launches first futures contract on frozen, stored meats – frozen pork bellies -- bacon.

1964: CME launches first agricultural futures based on non-storable commodities – live cattle futures.

1968: CBOT begins trading its first non-grain-related commodity, futures on iced broilers (chickens).

1969: CBOT begins trading its first non-grain product, silver futures.

1972: CME launches second financial futures contracts, offering contracts on seven foreign currencies.

1973: CBOT launches first exchange for trading equity options, Chicago Board Options Exchange.

1975: CBOT launches first interest rate futures contract, futures on the Government National Mortgage Association rates (GNMA futures).

1981: CME launches first cash-settled futures contract, Eurodollar futures.

1982: CME launches first successful stock index futures contract, S&P 500 Index futures.

1982: CBOT launches first options on futures contract -- U.S. Treasury bond futures.

1987: CME pioneers electronic futures trading with conceptualization and initial development of CME Globex electronic trading platform.

1992: First electronic futures trades are made on CME Globex platform.

1997: CME develops and launches the first mini-sized, electronic futures contract, E-mini S&P 500 futures, which expands trading past traditional trading floor hours.

1999: CME launches first weather-based futures contracts.

2000 to Present

2000: CME membership agrees to de-mutualize and become a publicly traded exchange.

2002: CME becomes first U.S. exchange to go public; stock is listed on New York Stock Exchange.

2003: CBOT moves clearing of all of its products from independent Board of Trade Clearing Corp., where it has transacted its business since 1926, to CME Clearing to add capital efficiencies for its customers.

2004: CME Globex executes the one billionth contract traded since its June 1992 launch.

2005: CBOT demutualizes and becomes publicly traded company, listed on New York Stock Exchange.

2006: CBOT and CME sign an agreement to merge into a single company pending regulatory and shareholder approval.

2006: CME becomes a listed component of the Standard & Poor's 500.

July 2007: CME and CBOT officially merge to form CME Group, Inc., averting an unfriendly takeover attempt to purchase the CBOT by Intercontinental Exchange announced in March 2007. Though in the end CME won over shareholders, they were forced to spend substantially more than the original purchase price of approximately $8 billion.

August 2008: Acquires the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), giving CME Group roughly 90 percent of all U.S. futures and adding energy and metals to its lineup of products.

2008: CME Group and BM&FBOVESPA, Latin America’s largest derivatives exchange, launch a partnership to enable worldwide distribution of BM&F products on CME Globex.

2011: CME Group Launches European clearing services via CME Clearing Europe

July 2012: McGraw-Hill, owner of the Standard & Poor's ratings service, announced a joint venture with CME Group called S&P Dow Jones Indices, in which McGraw Hill owns 73 percent of the company, CME Group owns 24.4 percent, and Dow Jones owns 2.6 percent.

December 2012: CME Group completed the acquisition of the Kansas City Board of Trade for $126 million in cash. The deal allows CME Group access to the market for hard red winter wheat, Kansas City's flagship contract.

July 2013: CME Group awarded Derivatives Intelligence's 2013 Global Derivatives Award for Exchange of the Year.

April 2014: CME Group Named 'North America Exchange of the Year' and 'Clearinghouse of the Year' by Global Capital.

March 2016:Duco and CME Group Team Up to Provide Innovative Data Control Service to Member Firms

May:Purdue, CME Group to take monthly 'barometer' of confidence in agricultural economy

November 2016: CME Group CEO Phupinder Gill Announces Retirement; Board Expands Role of Terry Duffy to Chairman and CEO; Appoints Bryan Durkin as President

November 2016: CME Group Announces Sir Tim Berners-Lee as the 2016 Melamed-Arditti Innovation Award Recipient

April 2017: CME Group Announces Record Open Interest of 123 Million Contracts

May 2021: CME Group announces permanent closing of the open-outcry trading pits in Chicago, except for the Eurodollar options pit, which would remain open.