Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), also called “The Merc,” was established in Chicago in 1919. It evolved from the Chicago Butter and Egg Board founded in 1898. Since its inception, it has traded futures on a wide range of products, including live cattle, agricultural commodities, and index futures. It is one of the largest and most diverse exchanges in the world.

Covering all major asset classes, the CME provides the widest range of benchmark futures and options products available on any exchange. The CME, which created the world’s first financial futures contracts in 1972, covers four major product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange, and commodities. Today, the CME's currency market is the largest regulated marketplace for foreign exchange trading. The CME has also introduced CME Eurodollar futures, which is the world’s most actively traded interest rate futures contract.

From the beginning, members traded futures contracts on agricultural commodities using the open outcry system. This system of trading is still in use today at the CME and is essentially hundreds of auctions going on simultaneously. Traders stand in a trading pit and call out prices, using hand signals to buy and sell. This serves as an efficient means of allowing the buyers and sellers to get the best prices through supply and demand.

In addition to the open outcry system, the CME has an electronic trading system called CME Globex, which allows investors around the world to trade from home or office virtually any time day or night. Approximately three quarters of trading on the CME occurs electronically.

The CME, the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), and the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) make up the CME Group, which is publicly traded on the NASDAQ under the symbol CME.