Blog Entries

Is This The Near Future for European Debt?

As the Eurozone crisis rolls on, we have noted an interesting market trend within our EUR/USD product segment: high levels of open interest yet muted average daily volumes (ADV) traded, particularly for the 1.2500 option strike for March 2012 expiry euro put / dollar call options. Financial News highlighted this trend today, As their story notes, the timing is no coincidence. In March, a large amount of Greek bonds are due for redemption. The effects of that event may ...Read More

Restoring Confidence to Market Users

Following the recent MF Global failure, our industry has been focused on strengthening protections for customer funds held at the firm level in the future. As a first step towards that goal, we announced today the establishment of the $100 million Family Farmer and Rancher Protection Fund. Under the fund, which we expect to be in place March 1, farmers and ranchers using our products will be eligible for up to $25,000 per account in the case of losses resulting from the ...Read More

Commodities Performance Remains Strong

Now that we’ve had a few weeks to look back on 2011, we can safely say that it was a good year for our commodities products overall. In fact, we had record volumes in ags, metals and energy products last year. That’s why it was surprising to find in Friday’s Wall Street Journal a story that began, “The commodities market is shrinking.” The story makes this claim based on an examination of open interest in 13 select commodity contracts, including oil, ...Read More

As Pressure on the Euro Increases, What About Energy?

The European embargo on Iranian oil marks a significant political touchpoint, but it may also signal more uncertainty ahead for the EU. The embargo, matched with the recent S&P downgrade of nine countries, and a euro that is seeing its lowest values in years, has weakened the correlation between the price of Brent crude and the euro/dollar spread. That disconnect led the Financial Times’ Alphaville blog to declare recently that, “Europe has completely decoupled from the rest of the world ...Read More

Video: 2011 Interest Rate Product Highlights

Over the next few weeks, Open Markets will be featuring video interviews with CME Group product heads as they recall the events that shaped 2011, and look ahead to 2012.  This week, Sean Tully, managing director of interest rate products, highlights CME Group’s interest rates business. 2011 was a big year for our interest rate contracts with new highs in open interest, a significant increase in average daily volume, and the introduction of several new products. These included the launch of ...Read More

For Risk Managers, A Look at Gold Consumption in 2011 and an Outlook for 2012

I was delighted to speak in Hong Kong earlier this week at the Asian launch of the Thomson Reuters GFMS Gold Survey – a long-established and highly-regarded source of analysis on the gold markets.  CME Group is a sponsor of this year’s edition, but the value for us goes far deeper than this. The report – the second update to Gold Survey 2011 released last April – contains a wealth of information, including some fascinating insight into gold consumption during 2011.  ...Read More

China’s Premier Steel Data Provider Promises New Opportunities

Today we announced CME Group’s first-ever licensing deal with a mainland China-based price and index vendor.  Mysteel is China’s leading service provider in the steel e-commerce sector.  Based in Shanghai, it has established strategic partnerships with more than 20 metallurgic bodies in China and more than 600,000 registered members and information-collecting systems covering over sixty cities across China. With this level of penetration, it’s no surprise that Mysteel’s products are the recognized benchmarks to risk managers with price exposure to the ...Read More