The Exchange opened its doors in 1898 as the Chicago Butter and Egg Board. In 1919, it moved into it’s headquarters at 136 Lake Street and changed its name to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
On December 1st, 1919, three contracts of eggs were traded over the course of 45 minutes.
The Trading Floor, August 1921
In 1928, the CME opened its facility at 110 North Franklin. The trading floor had more then 5,000 square feet of space and was comprised of 3 pits surrounded by traders desks.
Blackboards and Chalk were used to track trades
This Floor was home to the CME for more then 40 years
To keep up with increased demands for space and new technological innovations, the CME expanded to a new 14,000 square foot floor at 444 West Jackson Boulevard on November 27, 1972
On the new trading floor, the blackboards and chalk were replaced with large electronic quote boards to track trades
The rows of workstations were filled with telephone operators ready to take orders. Once an order was placed, it was passed onto a runner who rushed it to a trader
On November 28th, 1983, the CME moved to 30 South Wacker Drive. The trading floor had more then 40,000 square feet of space and was ten stories high, making it the largest trading complex of its kind
While creating the piece, LeRoy Neiman noted, “You don’t capture what you see, you respond to it. Ever color is in that room – starting with the yellows and the reds of the jackets…First it’s the painting, then it’s the subject.”
In 2007, more then 2.7 billion contracts were traded.