Trading Kingdom:CME Group Focused On Growth

Craig Donahue,CEO of CME Group,a family of four designated contracts markets,is a believer in consolidation of markets.Most of us are operating globally,he says.We have 150 countries trading on our platform.
The CME Group maintains trading floors in New York and Chicago,where the old open outcry trades are still performed alongside silent electronic ones.Stock and commodities futures and options,as well as foreign currencies,or forex,change hands at great speeds and big volumes.These trades both build portfolios and manage risk.
We are very focused on our core business.We have really great,compelling growth opportunities in our core business.We have been very focused on globalization for years.Consolidation and efficiencies are obviously important to investors and the industry.
We have such a large amount of customers in Europe and in Asia.We really believe in our growth opportunities as a company.We're continuing to really build out our platform.We're already operating different regulated entities.We're regulated in Europe.It's not really a barrier.
The idea of hedging and transferring risk is still relatively new.We innovate new products all the time to meet those needs.The futures and derivatives markets have been more global for 15 years.It's prone to more growth.People have global demand for forex,commodities,energy products.
We're focused on the emerging markets and see opportunities there.We'll continue to see strong growth.Commodities,forex,metals still have strong growth opportunities.We still have a large number of exchanges in the emerging markets not open to mergers and acquisitions.
Mr.Donahue is not a believer that we've seen the end of M&A in the financial markets.
CME Group consists of the CME,COMEX,CBOT and NYMEX exchanges,utilizing the Globex electronic trading platform.The acronyms stand for Chicago Mercantile Exchange,Commodities Exchange,Chicago Board of Trade,New York Mercantile Exchange.These complex markets are now more accessible to retail investors,as exchange traded funds provide easier access to their financial instruments.
CME Group(CME)

Problem Rooted in Leadership

Carl Icahn,billionaire investor and Chairman of Icahn Associates,thinks that the real problem is how we Americans treat our executives.They are more accountable overseas.Investors are getting the short end of the stick.The boards of directors aren't doing their job.I think that the crisis you have today is a problem of trust,Mr.Icahn said.The reason it's such an exacerbated problem is all these derivatives.The market has gone down a toboggan path.The simple solution is,you guarantee the banks' unsecured debt on the balance sheet.What I've been doing is watching and worrying,but bank debt is extremely cheap.There are also some stocks that are extremely undervalued.In a normal recession,there wouldn't be this preponderance of margin calls.A margin call is a stock sale forced by a creditor if he or she thinks you won't be able to pay him back the money you borrowed to buy the stock.There are trillions of dollars of derivatives out there,the candid Mr.Icahn pointed out.