The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), established in 1848, is the world's oldest futures and options exchange. More than 50 different options and
futures contracts are traded by over 3,600 CBOT members through
open outcry and electronic trading. Volumes at the exchange in 2003 were a record breaking 454 million
contracts. On 12 July 2007, the CBOT merged with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (
CME) to form the CME Group, a CME/Chicago Board of Trade Company. CBOT and three other exchanges (CME, NYMEX, and COMEX) now operate as designated
contract markets (DCM) of the CME Group.
