CME is the world’s largest and most diverse financial exchange. As an international marketplace, CME brings together buyers and sellers on CME Globex electronic trading platform and on its trading floors. CME offers futures and options on futures primarily in five product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange, alternative investments, and commodities. The exchange moved about $1.4 billion per day in settlement payments in the first three quarters of 2005 and managed $43.8 billion in collateral deposits at September 30, 2005, including $3.8 billion in deposits for non-CME products. CME is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (NYSE, NASDAQ: CME), which is part of the Russell 1000® Index.
The Korea Exchange Inc. (www.krx.co.kr), established in January 2005 through the merger of the Korea Stock Exchange (KSE), the Korea Futures Exchange (KOFEX), the KOSDAQ Market, and the KOSDAQ Committee, is the sole exchange in the Republic of Korea. The KRX operates the centralized securities and derivatives markets where stocks, bonds and derivatives are traded on a common platform. To best serve its clients, the KRX provides its customers with the full access to both cash and derivatives markets, and clears and settles all transactions on its markets as one-stop service. KRX offers 13 derivatives products primarily in four areas: stock index, bond/interest rate, currency and commodities. According to the 2004 statistics compiled by Futures Industry Association, KOSPI200 options is the most heavily traded one in the world in terms of trading volume with 2.5 billion contracts which brings in approximately 24 trillion in U.S. dollars.
