Winds of change blow for the CME

Everything looks rosy at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. So what’s new for 2003? Keith Brody reports

Executives at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) are popping open the champagne. Not only has the exchange had an extremely successful year – trading volumes have reached record highs (see figure 1) – but its long-awaited initial public offering finally began trading on December 6. And looking ahead into 2003, the exchange has plenty of new initiatives on the starting blocks.

The CME is the first major US-based derivatives exchange to publicly list its shares, although European competitors