I always wondered what the Merc was since my friend worked there and I knew it was an important part of Chicago.
According to Wikipedia, “The CME was founded in 1898 as the Chicago Butter and Egg Board. Originally, the exchange was a non-profit organization. The exchange demutualized in November 2000, went public in December 2002, and merged with the Chicago Board of Trade in July 2007 to become CME Group Inc.”
Apparantly, the Merc has the largest options and futures contracts open interest (number of contracts outstanding) of any futures exchange in the world.
Even a former president visited recently.
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