Finance · Profile from Finance Research Companion
CME Group
The world's largest derivatives exchange group. It was formed by the merger of two Chicago rivals, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (the "Merc", 1898) and the Chicago Board of Trade (1848), and enlarged by the purchase of New York's NYMEX and COMEX in 2008. In 1972 the Merc invented financial futures, and it later built Globex, the first global electronic futures platform. It demutualised and listed in 2002. CME owns its products outright: a SOFR, Treasury, E-mini S&P 500, WTI crude or gold futures contract can be traded only on a CME exchange and cleared only at CME Clearing. That vertical silo, with its liquidity and margin network effects, makes CME one of the most profitable companies in finance. It reported record 2025 revenue of ~$6.5bn on a record ~28.1m contracts a day, and a record third quarter of 2026 (~$1.74bn of revenue, ~29.4m contracts a day). Its main risks have been outages, the collapse of member firms it oversaw (MF Global, 2011), the oil contract that went negative (April 2020), and challengers trying to break its hold on US rates futures (FMX, from 2024) and crypto derivatives (Coinbase).
At a glance
- Founded
- Chicago Board of Trade 1848; Chicago Butter and Egg Board 1898, renamed Chicago Mercantile Exchange 1919; International Monetary Market (IMM) 1972; CME Group formed by the CME–CBOT merger, 12 July 2007
- Founders / key builders
- Leo Melamed (Merc chairman, father of financial futures and Globex); Milton Friedman (1971 paper on currency futures commissioned by the Merc); Jack Sandner and Terry Duffy (Merc chairmen); Craig Donohue (CEO 2004–12, led the CBOT and NYMEX deals)
- Headquarters
- 20 South Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois
- Ownership / structure
- Public company (Nasdaq: CME; first listed on the NYSE in December 2002, moved to Nasdaq in 2008). Class A common shares widely held; class B shares carry trading rights and board seats for former members of the Merc, CBOT and NYMEX. Google holds $1bn of non-voting convertible preferred (2021)
- Leadership (2026)
- Terrence (Terry) Duffy, chairman and CEO (CEO since November 2016); Lynne Fitzpatrick, CFO (verify); Suzanne Sprague, global head of clearing and post-trade services (verify title)
- Segments / products
- Interest rates (SOFR futures and options, Treasury futures and options, BrokerTec cash Treasuries and repo); equity indices (E-mini and Micro E-mini S&P 500, Nasdaq-100, Russell, Dow); energy (NYMEX WTI crude, Henry Hub natural gas, refined products); agriculture (CBOT corn, soybeans, wheat; CME livestock); metals (COMEX gold, silver, copper); FX (CME FX futures; EBS spot FX); cryptocurrency futures and options; event contracts (with FanDuel); market data; clearing (CME Clearing; CME Securities Clearing for Treasuries)
- Scale
- Record ~28.1m contracts average daily volume (ADV) in 2025; ~29.4m in Q3 2026 (record third quarter), with ~9m a day from outside the US (company)
- Revenue and profit
- 2025 revenue ~$6.5bn (+6%), operating income ~$4.2bn, market data ~$803m (record); fourth straight year of record revenue. Q3 2026 revenue ~$1.74bn (+13%), operating income ~$1.14bn, net income ~$1.04bn, adjusted EPS $3.02 (company)
- Capital / regulatory status
- Four US designated contract markets (CME, CBOT, NYMEX, COMEX) regulated by the CFTC; CME Clearing is a systemically important derivatives clearing organization (designated by FSOC in 2012); BrokerTec and EBS regulated in the US, UK and EU; CME Securities Clearing registered with the SEC as a Treasury clearing agency (1 December 2025)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- The IMM and financial futures (1972); demutualisation, Globex and the IPO (2000–02); the CBOT merger and the ICE bidding war (2007); NYMEX and COMEX (2008); MF Global's collapse under CME's oversight (2011); bitcoin futures and the crypto business (2017–26); BrokerTec, EBS and NEX (2018); negative oil prices (2020); the Google Cloud partnership (2021); SOFR, Treasury clearing and the FMX challenge (2018–26)
10 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
1972
International Monetary Market and Financial Futures
Launch (new market and product category)
2002
Demutualisation Globex and IPO
Restructuring (demutualisation) / IPO
2007
CBOT Merger and ICE Bidding War
Merger (contested)
2008
NYMEX and COMEX Acquisition
Acquisition
2011
MF Global Collapse and Frontline Regulation
Failure (of a member firm under CME's oversight) / regulatory role and response
2017
Bitcoin Futures and Crypto Derivatives
Launch (new asset class), extended through 2026
2018
NEX Group BrokerTec and EBS
Acquisition (cross-border, cash and stock)
2020
Negative Oil Prices
Failure / controversy (market event and the exchange's response)
2021
Google Cloud Partnership
Partnership / funding (strategic equity investment)
2024
SOFR Treasury Clearing and the FMX Challenge
Defence of the core franchise / launch (new clearing house)