Chicago Board of Trade

The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), established in 1848, is the world's oldest futures and options exchange. CBOT, as a leading exchange for trading of derivatives products, trades more than 50 different futures and options by over 3,600 CBOT members through open outcry auction and / or eTrading. Volumes at the exchange in 2003 was a record breaking 454 million contracts.

History

Basically, the concerns of US merchants to ensure that there were buyers and sellers for commodities have resulted into forward contracts to sell and buy commodities. Still, credit risks remained serious problems. The CBOT took shape to provide a centralized location, where buyers and sellers may meet and negotiate and formalize forward contracts.

In 1865, the CBOT listed the first “exchange traded” derivatives contract in the history of the capital and financial markets of the United States of America, and these contracts were called futures contracts. In the year 1919, Chicago Butter and Egg Board[1], a spin-off the CBOT, was reorganized to enable member traders to allow future trading, and its name was changed to Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).

Since 1930, the Chicago Board of Trade has been functioning from 141, W. Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, and is housed in a building designed by architechts Holabird & Root. On 4 May 1977, the Chicago Board of Trade Building was designated a Chicago Landmark[2].

News lines

• On October 22, 1981, trading was halted on the Chicago Board of Trade and the Philadelphia Stock Exchange after anonymous callers said bombs had been placed in those buildings.

External links

• Chicago Board of Trade
• CBOT – CBOT Membership Overwhelmingly Approves Restructuring