NEW YORK MERCANTILE EXCHANGE (1882)

The New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) is the world's largest physical commodity futures exchange, located in New York City. Its two principal divisions are the New York Mercantile Exchange and the New York Commodities Exchange (COMEX) which were once independent companies but are now merged. The New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. is now traded publicly, as its parent company, NYMEX Holdings, Inc. became listed on the New York Stock Exchange on November 17, 2006, under the ticker symbol NMX.



The New York Mercantile Exchange handles billions of dollars worth of energy products, metals, and other commodities being bought and sold on the trading floor and the overnight electronic trading computer systems. The prices quoted for transactions on the exchange are the basis for prices that people pay for throughout the world.

Commodity exchanges began in the middle of the 19th century, when businessmen began organizing market forums to make buying and selling of commodities easier. These marketplaces provided a place for buyers and sellers to set the quality, standards, and establish rules of business. By the late 1800s about 1,600 marketplaces had sprung up at ports and railroad stations. In 1872, a group of Manhattan dairy merchants got together and created the Butter and Cheese Exchange of New York. Soon, egg trade became part of the business conducted on the exchange and the name was modified to the Butter, Cheese, and Egg Exchange. In 1882, the name finally changed to the New York Mercantile Exchange when opening trade to dried fruits, canned goods, and poultry. As centralized warehouses were built into principal market centers such as New York and Chicago in the early 20th century, exchanges in smaller cities began to disappear giving more business to the exchanges such as the NYMEX in bigger cities. In 1933, the COMEX was established through the merger of four smaller exchanges; the National Metal Exchange, the Rubber Exchange of New York, the National Raw Silk Exchange, and the New York Hide Exchange. On August 3, 1994, the NYMEX and COMEX finally merged under the NYMEX. Now, the NYMEX operates in a state of the art trading facility and office building with two trading floors in the World Financial Center in downtown Manhattan.

The commodities are in trading:
- Crued Oil
- Aluminium
- Copper
- Coal
- Electricity
- Gasoline
- Gold
- Heating oil
- Platinum
- Silver eg.