CME Globex

TOP CONTRIBUTORS

Ryan Rechkemmer

paolo pezzutti

CME Globex, the first global electronic futures trading platform, was introduced in 1992 to complement the traditional open outcry system in order to enhance trading efficiency and extend trading hours. Today, it offers trading approximately 23 hours a day, five days a week.

CME Globex is an electronic trading platform that is an integral part of CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) which operates trading venues and clearinghouses for such financial derivatives as interest rate swaps, equity and commodity futures, credit default swaps, and foreign exchange. Globex accounted for approximately 80% of the exchange’s daily volume of contracts traded in 2010.

Trading on Globex is possible almost around the clock, from Sunday evening through Friday afternoon, accompanied by a new state-of-the-art data center that provides information 24 hours a day. The beginning of each trading day is marked by the afternoon session opening. However, session hours vary according to the different products and their specifications, requiring traders to understand the unique dynamics of each market in which they trade.

Plans first implemented in 2010 promise to cut response times - the time it takes to match a trade electronically on the CME Globex platform - to 5.5 milliseconds from 127 milliseconds in 2004, ensuring the continued technological leadership of the CME in the foreseeable future.^[1]

Products on Globex are organized as follows:

• Side-by-Side contracts trade for a portion of the day simultaneously via open outcry
• Electronic-Only contracts trade only electronically
• After-Hours Electronic contracts trade electronically after the product stops trading via open outcry

Trading Hours

References

CME GLOBEX Reference Guide

1. ↑ Barron's "An Exchange's Embarrassment of Riches"