In 1874, the Chicago Produce Exchange was established. This provided a market for butter, eggs, poultry, and other perishable agricultural products. In 1898, the butter and egg dealers withdrew from this exchange to form the Chicago Butter and Egg Board.
In 1919, this was renamed the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and was recognized for future trading. Since then, the exchange has provided a futures market for many commodities including pork bellies (1961), live cattle (1964), live hogs (1966) and feeder cattle (1971). In 1982, it introduces a futures market on the S&P 500 stock index.
The International Monetary Market (IMM) was formed as a division of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in 1972 for future trading in foreign currencies. The currency futures traded on the IMM now include the British pound, the Canadian dollar, the Japanese yen, the Swiss franc, the German mark, and the Australian dollar. The IMM also trades a gold futures contact, a treasury bill futures contract, and a Euro dollar future contract.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is the world’s second-largest exchange for futures and options on futures and the largest in the U.S. Trading involves mostly futures on interest rates, currency, equities, stock indices and a small amount on agricultural products.