CME Group INC.: directors' dealings · United States · SEC (Form 4)

About CME Group INC.

CME Group Inc. (ticker: CME) is a leading U.S. exchange operator and derivatives marketplace listed on the NYSE/NASDAQ and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The company’s roots go back to 1848 through the Chicago Mercantile Exchange heritage, while the modern CME Group was built through the combination of CME and CBOT and the later integration of additional franchise assets. Today, CME Group operates four major exchanges under one umbrella: CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX. For international equity investors, the name represents critical market infrastructure rather than a conventional cyclical financial stock, although earnings are still influenced by trading volumes, volatility, interest rates, FX moves and commodity market activity. CME Group’s business model is centered on clearing and transaction fees, complemented by market data and information services. It provides futures and options on futures across a broad set of asset classes, including interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities and metals. Its electronic trading platform, CME Globex, is a core distribution and execution channel, while BrokerTec supports fixed income trading and EBS is a key venue for foreign exchange trading. This broad product architecture gives CME Group one of the widest ranges of global benchmark contracts in the industry and creates meaningful network effects through liquidity, standardization and participant breadth. From a competitive standpoint, CME Group is one of the strongest global derivatives venues, supported by deep liquidity pools, a trusted clearing franchise and a highly recognizable brand among institutional hedgers, banks, asset managers, commodity users and active traders. Its U.S. interest-rate complex is particularly important, as it is widely used by market participants to hedge and express macro views across the Treasury and rates landscape. The company also has an increasingly international footprint, with meaningful non-U.S. trading activity and access across Europe and Asia, underlining its status as a global market platform rather than a purely domestic exchange operator. Recent operating momentum has been solid. CME Group reported record 2025 annual average daily volume of 28.1 million contracts, up 6% year over year, and also set a single-day volume record of 67.1 million contracts in February 2025. In 2026, the company reported record first-quarter revenue, adjusted operating income, adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share, which points to resilient fundamentals and strong demand for hedging and risk-transfer products. CME has also continued to highlight product innovation and expansion, including initiatives tied to digital assets and broader access to trading. For investors, CME combines high-quality market infrastructure, durable competitive advantages and a recurring revenue profile tied to global risk management needs.