U.S. Futures Exchange (USFE) was a

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

-based, electronic

futures exchange A futures exchange or futures market is a central financial exchange where people can trade standardized futures contracts defined by the exchange. Futures contracts are derivatives contracts to buy or sell specific quantities of a commodity or ...

that terminated all exchange operations on December 31, 2008. On December 17, 2008,

MF Global MF Global Holdings Ltd., formerly known as Man Financial, was a major global financial derivatives broker, or commodities brokerage firm that went bankrupt in 2011. MF Global provided exchange-traded derivatives, such as futures and options ...

had announced USFE was for sale or would be closed by December 31, 2008. USFE was originally Eurex US who bought BrokerTec, but applied and received its own futures exchange license from the U.S.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US government created in 1974 that regulates the U.S. derivatives markets, which includes futures contract, fut ...

. In October 2006,

Man Group Man Group plc is an active investment management business listed on the London Stock Exchange. It provides investment funds in liquid and private markets for institutional and private investors. It is the world's largest publicly traded hedge f ...

bought a majority share of Eurex US and

rebranded Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors ...

the exchange U.S. Futures Exchange. It has been working to release a set of new products under a strategy of bringing innovation to the more than century-old derivatives business. The chief executive officer was John Spiegel.

Products

On September 3, 2008, USFE announced an exclusive licensing agreement with

Deutsche Börse Deutsche Börse AG (), or the Deutsche Börse Group, is a German multinational corporation that offers a marketplace for organizing the trading of shares and other securities. It is also a transaction services provider, giving companies and inv ...

to launch a mini-sized U.S. dollar-denominated DAX(R) futures contract to be launched October 1, 2008. The new contract carried a $10 multiplier, enabling U.S. futures traders access to a leading German stock market index without currency exposure. On April 18, 2007, USFE launched its first contracts since its

rebranding Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors ...

. The first was a Binary Event Future on whether the

Chicago Mercantile Exchange The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) (often called "the Chicago Merc", or "the Merc") is an American derivatives marketplace based in Chicago and located at 20 S. Wacker Drive. The CME was founded in 1898 as the Chicago Butter and Egg Board ...

would successfully purchase the

Chicago Board of Trade The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), is an American futures exchange, futures and options exchange that was founded in 1848. On July 12, 2007, the CBOT merged with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) to form CME Group. CBOT and three other excha ...

. The second was similar except on whether 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 ...

would purchase the Chicago Board of Trade. A binary event future settles to 100 if the event occurs and 0 if the event does not occur. The CME-CBOT contract settled on July 13, 2007, to 100 when the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade completed a merger and became the

CME Group CME Group Inc. is an American financial services company based in Chicago that operates financial derivatives exchanges including the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Chicago Board of Trade, New York Mercantile Exchange, and the Commodity Exchange. ...

. On March 14, 2007, USFE announced plans to launch futures based on ISE indexes, including the Homebuilders, Gold, SINdex, Revere Natural Gas, and Water Indexes. USFE also announced an exclusive deal with Morningstar to list futures based on their 16 capitalization and style-based indexes on May 23, 2007. On June 28, 2007, USFE announced it would launch a series of renewable energy futures starting with on NORDIX Financial Wind Index futures in seven distinct U.S. regions. All of these futures were due to be released in Q4 of 2007. On September 21, 2007, USFE announced that it would begin trading Spot Equivalent foreign exchange futures on a 23-hour basis. Spot Equivalent Futures are futures which pay out basis nightly so that the futures contract will price the same as a

spot contract In finance, a spot contract, spot transaction, or simply spot, is a contract of buying or selling a commodity, security or currency for immediate settlement (payment and delivery) on the spot date, which is normally two business days after th ...

in the

foreign exchange market The foreign exchange market (forex, FX, or currency market) is a global decentralized or over-the-counter (OTC) market for the trading of currencies. This market determines foreign exchange rates for every currency. By trading volume, ...

. However, at the same time, it would trade on a transparent, regulated exchange. The first contracts included

Euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

(EUR/USD),

British pound Sterling (Currency symbol, symbol: Pound sign, £; ISO 4217, currency code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound is the main unit of account, unit of sterling, and the word ''Pound (cu ...

(GBP/USD),

Japanese yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the euro. Th ...

(USD/JPY),

Australian Dollar The Australian dollar (currency sign, sign: $; ISO 4217, code: AUD; also abbreviated A$ or sometimes AU$ to distinguish it from other dollar, dollar-denominated currencies; and also referred to as the dollar or Aussie dollar) is the official ...

(AUD/USD),

Swiss Franc The Swiss franc, or simply the franc, is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is also legal tender in the Italian exclave of Campione d'Italia which is surrounded by Swiss territory. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) iss ...

(USD/CHF), and

Canadian Dollar The Canadian dollar (currency symbol, symbol: $; ISO 4217, code: CAD; ) is the currency of Canada. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $. There is no standard disambiguating form, but the abbreviations Can$, CA$ and C$ are frequently used f ...

(USD/CAD).

Trading platform

USFE was a fully electronic exchange. Its last platform release, USFE 1.0, was based on

Eurex Eurex Exchange is a German derivatives exchange which primarily offers trading in European based derivatives. The products traded on this exchange vary from German and Swiss debt instruments to European stocks and various stock indexes. All tran ...

8.0 developed by Deutsche Börse Systems with an additional market allocation algorithm to incentivize liquidity providers. USFE used the

network backbone to provide connectivity worldwide.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Financial services companies disestablished in 2008 2008 disestablishments in Illinois Commodity exchanges in the United States Defunct companies based in Chicago Futures exchanges