by RTAmerica on Dec 23, 2011
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A futures exchange is a central financial exchange where people can trade futures contracts and other derivatives, which are financial instruments whose values are derived from the price movement of the underlying asset (stocks, commodities, etc.). Futures exchanges have been around for millennia, with one of the earliest known futures markets having developed in pre-socratic Greece as far back as 600 B.C -- or thereabouts -- by Thales of Miletus, who developed the brilliant idea of securing the future use of olive presses in Miletus prior to the olive harvest for a fixed price, with the expectation that a bountiful harvest would boost demand for these presses, allowing him to sell back his options contracts to other Greeks at a higher price. Legend has it that he eventually bought all the presses with the proceeds from his financial wizardry, just to show his fellow Milesians how smart he was. In more recent times, we saw the rise of futures markets here in the United States, specifically in Chicago, where proximity to farmland
and agribusiness made it a logical choice. Although markets for hedging against fluctuations in price caused by unforeseeable gluts or shortages in crop yields already existed, these markets where highly illiquid, nontransparent, and contracts were often not honored by counterparts (hmmm sounds kinda familiar). Therefore, one of the reasons for running such transactions through a regulated exchange is to clear the trades and provide a central counterparty that will extend a guarantee that the trade will be settled as originally intended. Eventually, the Chicago Board of Trade was created in 1848 to help buyers and sellers of these derivatives hedge their positions on a regulated exchange. It was later bought out by the CME, whose Chairman Terrence Duffy, our audience should know all too well...Of course, the recent experience of MF Global's customer's with segregated trading accounts has thrown the entire premise of having such regulated markets into question, since one of the major points of paying the premium to run transactions through an exchange is in order to mitigate, if not eliminate, counterparty risk.
http://twitter.com/laurenlyster
http://twitter.com/coveringdelta
A futures exchange is a central financial exchange where people can trade futures contracts and other derivatives, which are financial instruments whose values are derived from the price movement of the underlying asset (stocks, commodities, etc.). Futures exchanges have been around for millennia, with one of the earliest known futures markets having developed in pre-socratic Greece as far back as 600 B.C -- or thereabouts -- by Thales of Miletus, who developed the brilliant idea of securing the future use of olive presses in Miletus prior to the olive harvest for a fixed price, with the expectation that a bountiful harvest would boost demand for these presses, allowing him to sell back his options contracts to other Greeks at a higher price. Legend has it that he eventually bought all the presses with the proceeds from his financial wizardry, just to show his fellow Milesians how smart he was. In more recent times, we saw the rise of futures markets here in the United States, specifically in Chicago, where proximity to farmland
and agribusiness made it a logical choice. Although markets for hedging against fluctuations in price caused by unforeseeable gluts or shortages in crop yields already existed, these markets where highly illiquid, nontransparent, and contracts were often not honored by counterparts (hmmm sounds kinda familiar). Therefore, one of the reasons for running such transactions through a regulated exchange is to clear the trades and provide a central counterparty that will extend a guarantee that the trade will be settled as originally intended. Eventually, the Chicago Board of Trade was created in 1848 to help buyers and sellers of these derivatives hedge their positions on a regulated exchange. It was later bought out by the CME, whose Chairman Terrence Duffy, our audience should know all too well...Of course, the recent experience of MF Global's customer's with segregated trading accounts has thrown the entire premise of having such regulated markets into question, since one of the major points of paying the premium to run transactions through an exchange is in order to mitigate, if not eliminate, counterparty risk.
All information on this website is for educational purposes only and is not intended to provide financial advise. Any statements about profits or income, expressed or implied, does not represent a guarantee. Your actual trading may result in losses as no trading system is guaranteed. You accept full responsibilities for your actions, trades, profit or loss, and agree to hold MinKL Invest harmless in any and all ways.
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