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Spirit of Innovation
Timeline of Achievements

We are responsible for serving you with key developments that have built today’s futures industry, including the birth of futures trading. These include the standardization of futures contracts, formation of the clearing process, and introduction of financial futures, cash-settlement and electronic trading. We have demonstrated ongoing leadership in developing creative products, breakthrough trading technology and a superior business model through a continuing series of firsts. Our collective legacy spans three centuries of unique contributions to the financial markets.

View a record of CME Group products and when they began trading.

1800s

  • Creation of the world’s first futures exchange, based in Chicago, in 1848
  • The earliest “forward” contract ever recorded, in 1851, a concept that quickly gained popularity among merchants and processors
  • Development of standardized agreements called “futures” contracts, the world’s first such agreements, in 1865, which formalized grain trading
  • The world’s first futures clearing operation, in 1865, which required performance bonds, called “margin,” to be posted by buyers and sellers in its grain markets
  • Construction, in 1885, of Chicago’s tallest building and first commercial structure with electric lights, to accommodate the rapid growth of futures trading

1900s

  • The first futures contract on frozen, stored meats —frozen pork bellies – in 1961
  • The first agricultural futures based on non-storable commodities — live cattle – in 1964
  • The first financial futures contracts, with contracts on seven foreign currencies, in 1972
  • The first interest rate futures, in 1975, with contracts on the Government National Mortgage Association
  • The first energy futures, in 1978
  • The first cash-settled futures contract, Eurodollar futures, in 1981
  • The first successful stock index futures contract, S&P 500 Index futures, in 1982
  • The first options on futures contract, for U.S. Treasury Bond futures, also in 1982
  • Conceptualization and development of the first electronic trading platform for futures, the CME Globex platform, in 1987
  • The first mini-sized, all electronic futures contracts, E-mini S&P 500 futures, in 1997
  • The first weather-based futures contracts, in 1999

2000s

  • The first U.S. exchange to go public, in 2002
  • CME and CBOT officially merge in 2007 to form CME Group Inc., world's largest and most diverse exchange
  • NYMEX becomes part of CME Group

 

CME Group Center for Innovation

CME Group has continually embraced change and fostered an entrepreneurial spirit that has enabled our exchanges - as well as the futures industry - to grow and prosper. The CME Group Center for Innovation creates and sponsors thought-provoking original programming that identifies, showcases and fosters examples of significant innovation and creative thinking across multiple industries.

Learn more about the CME Group Center for Innovation.