International Competitiveness of U.S. Futures Exchanges

Abstract

Futures exchanges are business organizations providing transaction services and associated clearing and settlement services in a wide variety of products ranging these days from agricultural products (corn, soy beans, beef cattle) to precious metals (gold, silver, platinum) to petroleum products (heating oil, gasoline) and, most important currently, to financial instruments (stock indexes, Treasury bonds, foreign currencies). A breakdown of the futures exchange industry by location and type of product traded for the three years 1980,1985, and 1990 is presented in table 1.