Globex

What Is Globex?

Globex is an electronic trading platform — the first of its sort when it launched in 1992 — used for derivatives like futures, options, and commodity contracts across a wide range of asset classes. Developed for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), CME Globex (as it is authoritatively known) operates persistently, unrestricted by geographic borders or time zones.

Globex trades constitute 90% of CME Group's total volume — nine out of every 10 trades, in other words. The platform offers access from more than 150 countries and foreign territories.

Understanding Globex

Globex is an open-access marketplace, operating nearly 24 hours every day, from Sunday evening through late Friday afternoon, which permits participants to directly trade and view orders, prices, and other data in real-time.

To access Globex, customers must have a CME Group clearing firm relationship and CME Group-certified trading application. CME Group is the parent company of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), alongside several other major commodity exchanges, including Commodity Exchange, Inc. (COMEX), the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), and the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT).

The beginning of the CME Globex session, which for the most part happens in the afternoon or evening, generally denotes the beginning of the next trading day. For example, orders entered during Monday's evening session are dated for and cleared on Tuesday. There are brief 30 to hour long breaks, depending on the asset, in the middle of between the close and re-opening of each of the five daily sessions.

17+ million

More than 17 million contracts trade daily on Globex, on average.

The Development of Globex

As per "Twenty Years of CME Globex," a 2012 CME Group report, the idea for Globex previously arose in 1987, as a "low-influence means of giving after-hours market coverage" for futures and options trading. The platform at long last launched on June 25, 1992, running off of technology and network infrastructure used by the news and wire service Reuters. It began with three currency products and one Treasury note product, yet immediately expanded into other assets — and, surprisingly, invented some.

For example, the E-mini S&P 500 futures contract debuted in 1997, an instrument intended to be traded exclusively on Globex. Other special "e-mini" contracts include the FORTUNE E-50 Index futures, an E-mini Currency contract, and an E-mini Nasdaq 100 contract.

CME Group instituted an open access policy for Globex in 2000, permitting customers to trade directly in the system, without going through a broker. As a result, business soared: In 2002, the Globex average daily volume exceeded 1 million contracts interestingly, and in 2004, Globex volume exceeded physical pit volume interestingly.

Globex is partnered with other global exchanges including the Dubai Mercantile Exchange and the Korea Exchange.

Remarkably, 2007 marked the principal year the system's volume exceeded 1 billion contracts. By 2012, the platform's twentieth anniversary, 84% of the volume of the CME Group's different markets was through electronic trading on Globex.

Globex is currently likewise a site for trading in assets in the sectors of agriculture (in 2008, the Kansas City Board of Trade and Minneapolis Grain Exchange moved their products to it), energy, stock indices, foreign exchange, interest rates, metals, real estate, and, surprisingly, the weather. Some futures and options products are traded solely on Globex, while others are traded in the physical pits — through open-clamor — too.

Features

• The platform offers both unique products alongside products traded customarily through open-clamor.
• The system was developed for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and is formally known as CME Globex, operating very nearly 24 hours per day, Sunday through Friday.
• Introduced in 1992, Globex is one of the original electronic trading platforms used for derivatives contracts.