The International Exchange, now ICE Futures (since 2005-04-7), based in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, was one of the world's largest energy futures and options exchanges. Its flagship commodity, ''

Brent Crude Brent Crude may refer to any or all of the components of the Brent Complex, a physically and financially traded oil market based around the North Sea of Northwest Europe; colloquially, Brent Crude usually refers to the price of the ICE (Intercon ...

'' was a world benchmark for oil prices, but the exchange also handled

futures contract In finance, a futures contract (sometimes called futures) is a standardized legal contract to buy or sell something at a predetermined price for delivery at a specified time in the future, between parties not yet known to each other. The item tr ...

s and options on

fuel oil Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil (bunker fuel), marine f ...

natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

(baseload and peakload), coal contracts and, as of 22 April 2005,

carbon emission Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities intensify the greenhouse effect. This contributes to climate change. Carbon dioxide (), from burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas, is the main cause of climate change. The l ...

allowances with the

European Climate Exchange The European Climate Exchange (ECX) managed the product development and marketing for ECX Carbon Financial Instruments (ECX CFIs), listed and admitted for trading on the ICE Futures Europe electronic platform. For a time it was a subsidiary of the ...

(ECX). The IPE was acquired by the

Intercontinental Exchange Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE) is an American multinational financial services company formed in 2000 that operates global financial exchanges and clearing houses and provides mortgage technology, data and listing services. Listed on the ...

in 2001. The IPE was an

open outcry Open outcry is a method of communication between professionals on a stock exchange or futures exchange, typically on a trading floor. It involves shouting and the use of Hand signaling (stock market), hand signals to transfer information pri ...

exchange until 7 April 2005, when its name was changed to ICE Futures and all trading was shifted onto an

electronic trading platform In finance, an electronic trading platform, also known as an online trading platform, is a computer software program that can be used to place orders for financial products over a network with a financial intermediary. Various financial products ...

."Open outcry trading to end on IPE"
''BBC News'', 7 April 2005

History

Until the 1970s, the price of oil was relatively stable with production largely controlled by the biggest oil companies. During that decade two oil price shocks led to continued price volatility in the market; short-term physical markets evolved, and the need to hedge emerged. A group of energy and futures companies founded the IPE in 1980, and the first contract, for gas oil futures, was launched the following year. In June 1988, the IPE launched

futures. Since its inception, oil futures and latterly options have been traded in pits on the

trading floor Open outcry is a method of communication between professionals on a stock exchange or futures exchange, typically on a trading floor. It involves shouting and the use of hand signals to transfer information primarily about buy and sell orde ...

using the open outcry system. As business volumes have grown, the IPE has moved location several times to accommodate new pits and more traders. The Exchange has experienced incremental growth, year-on-year for most of its history. Complexity, but also efficiency have increased as new trading instruments such as

swap Swap or SWAP may refer to: Finance * Swap (finance), a derivative in which two parties agree to exchange one stream of cash flows against another * Barter Science and technology * Swap (computer programming), exchanging two variables in the ...

s, futures, and options have been developed.

Contracts

Since 1997, the ICE Futures has expanded its offerings from Brent Crude and Gas Oil to include Natural Gas (1997), Electricity (2004), and ECX carbon

financial instrument Financial instruments are monetary contracts between parties. They can be created, traded, modified and settled. They can be cash (currency), evidence of an ownership, interest in an entity or a contractual right to receive or deliver in the form ...

s (2005). These expansions have allowed ICE Futures to offer a wider range of energy products. More advanced transactions are also now possible, due to cross- and multi-product transactions, which eliminate the need to use multiple markets or an adviser.

References

External links

ICE

History

Contracts

References

External links

See also