The Exchange commenced trading in 1960 as the Sydney Greasy Wool Futures Exchange (SGWFE) to provide Australian wooltraders with hedging facilities in their own country. SGWFE offered a single contract of greasy wool that by the end of the year had traded 19,042 lots.
40 years later SFE is the largest financial futures and options exchange in the Asia Pacific region, offering over 50 derivatives products covering equities, interest rates and commodities. In 1999, 29.8 million contracts were traded, valued at A$9.7 trillion - only the value of turnover in foreign exchange is higher in Australia's financial markets.
Today, the turnover of SFE's most heavily-traded contract, 3-Year Bond futures, amounts to almost 11 million contracts per year - equivalent to the Exchange's total annual volume only a decade ago. In 1960, an average of 115 contracts were traded each day. Twenty years later that figure had risen to 2,423. This year the average daily volume is 141,183 futures and options contracts, 23.6% higher than in 1999.
SFE's 40 years have been marked by product innovation, growing liquidity, faultless clearing and a readiness to embrace new technologies. A timeline of highlights include:
1960 - SGWFE opens on the 5th floor of 16 O'Connell Street, Sydney, with a staff of four. By the mid 1960s it had become the world's leading wool futures market 1972 - named changed to SFE 1979 - first exchange outside the US to list a financial futures contract (90-Day Bank Bill); 1983 - first exchange outside the US to list a futures contract based on a stock index (SPI®); 1984 - first exchange outside the US to list a bond futures contract (2-Year Treasury Bond); 1989 - moves into the renovated Royal Naval House in Grosvenor Street, the Exchange's fifth home, with a trading floor modelled on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange 1989 - first futures exchange in the world to introduce an after hours electronic trading platform (SYCOM®); 1991 - established its own clearing house (SFECH); 1992 - acquires the New Zealand Futures and Options Exchange; 1993 - overnight options on futures launched, the first product of its type globally; 1994 - named 'International Derivatives Exchange of the Year' by International; Financing Review; 1995 - trading link established with the New York Mercantile Exchange; 1999 - first exchange (futures or stock) in the Asia Pacific to be granted permission by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission to set-up trading terminals in US; 1999 - closes trading floor and becomes fully electronic 2000 - moving toward demutualisation and at the forefront of the development of a trading market for carbon credits
