With more than $80 billion in futures and options flowing through CME Group FX markets every day, you can be confident in your ability to get in and out of markets quickly and easily. CME Group FX futures markets are supported by automated trading systems supplying continual pricing feeds from global forex market makers. These pricing feeds are real-time, dealable quotes, which allow CME Group to provide exceptional market liquidity and a dynamic trading venue for a large pool of forex fund managers, interbank spot forex traders, international asset managers, multinational corporations, speculators, day traders and individual investors.

Individual traders, hedge funds and large institutions alike see and have access to the same prices with complete anonymity in all bids, offers and execution reports.

If you currently trade forex in the spot/cash market, you may be paying more than you think for your trades. Spot/cash trades are private deals that very often have a dealer spread in the quoted price. Brokers make their livelihood by quoting wide bid/offer spreads in order to capture a pip or more of the price on every trade. Widely advertised as "commission-free trading," these undisclosed deal spreads raise the cost of forex deals to customers. At CME Group, transactions are reasonably priced and costs are always transparent and fully disclosed.

CME Group is regulated by the U.S. Government via the CFTC. Integrity and openness are critical components of CME Group markets. Fair and transparent pricing, open access and the highest ethical standards are important criteria applied in managing CME Group markets.

If you trade forex at another venue, you may not be aware of the importance of the guarantor and clearing method of each marketplace. As opposed to trading in the spot/cash market, CME Group FX futures offer the unparalleled backing of CME Clearing. Virtually eliminating counterparty credit risk, CME Clearing acts as the counterparty to every trade. We are the buyer to every seller, and the seller to every buyer. We match and settle all trades, collect and maintain performance bonds, regulate delivery and provide data reports - ultimately guaranteeing the creditworthiness of every transaction that takes place in our markets. This safeguard is the cornerstone of the market that has not suffered a default in more than 100 years. This type of clearing guarantee generally is not matched at other non-exchange forex trading venues.

Forex trades on CME Globex® are executed and instantly confirmed back to the customer anywhere in the world - significantly faster than competing electronic platforms. Our customers can access the CME Globex trading platform virtually 24 hours a day* through more than 1,100 direct connections in 86 countries and foreign territories around the world, as well as through telecommunications hubs - located in London, Amsterdam, Dublin, Gibraltar, Milan, Paris and Singapore - that provide reduced connectivity costs, increased accessibility and fast, efficient trading of CME Group products. Perhaps that's why the CME Globex platform was named "the best electronic FX futures platform" by FX Week in 2004 and 2005.

CME Group requires that traders of its products maintain performance bond requirements (as good faith deposits) to protect against trading losses. This requirement provides access to margin trading for all market participants and allows traders to use leverage in order to hold a position larger than their initial deposit amount.

At CME Group it is easy to execute spread trades. For example, a futures currency calendar spread, also known as an intra-currency futures spread, is an order for the simultaneous purchase and sale of futures contracts of the identical currency for different delivery months, with a price differential. Traders are able to roll their futures positions from one quarterly futures contract month to another active quarterly futures contract month at any time.