uses of commodity exchange see commodity exchange disambiguation . for other uses of comex see comex disambiguation . not to be confused with nynex . coordinates 40 42 52 n 74 1 1 w 40.71444 n 74.01694 w 40.71444 ; 74.01694 new york mercantile exchange type subsidiary of the cme group founded 1882 headquarters manhattan new york city united states website www.cmegroup.com the new york mercantile exchange nymex is a commodity futures exchange owned and operated by cme group of chicago . nymex is located at one north end avenue in brookfield place in the battery park city section of manhattan new york city . additional offices are located in boston washington atlanta san francisco dubai london and tokyo . the company s two principal divisions are the new york mercantile exchange and commodity exchange inc comex once separately owned exchanges . nymex holdings inc. the former parent company of the new york mercantile exchange and comex became listed on the new york stock exchange on november 17 2006 under the ticker symbol nmx . on march 17 2008 chicago based cme group signed a definitive agreement to acquire nymex holdings inc. for 11.2 billion in cash and stock and the takeover was completed in august 2008 . both nymex and comex now operate as designated contract markets dcm of the cme group . 1 the other two designated contract markets in the cme group are the chicago mercantile exchange and the chicago board of trade . the new york mercantile exchange handles billions of dollars worth of energy carriers metals and other commodities being bought and sold on the trading floor and the overnight electronic trading computer systems for future delivery . the prices quoted for transactions on the exchange are the basis for prices that people pay for various commodities throughout the world . the floor of the nymex is regulated by the commodity futures trading commission an independent agency of the united states government . each individual company that trades on the exchange must send its own independent brokers . therefore a few employees on the floor of the exchange represent a big corporation and the exchange employees only record the transactions and have nothing to do with the actual trade . although mostly electronic since 2006 the nymex maintains a small venue that still practices the open outcry trading system in which traders employ shouting and complex hand gestures on the physical trading floor . a project to preserve the hand signals used at nymex has been published . 2 contents 1 early history 1.1 goods 1.2 growth 2 later history 2.1 september 11 2001 attacks 2.2 electronic trading 2.3 sell off 3 trading platforms 4 commodities traded 5 leadership 6 see also 7 references 8 external links early history edit former buildings 628 broadway between bleecker and houston streets built in 1882 and designed by h.j. schwarzmann 3 6 harrison street at hudson street the exchange s headquarters from 1885 1977 4 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 19th century 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 . through the 1970s 80 s and 90 s comex nymex and other exchanges shared a single trading floor 5 in 4 world trade center . goods edit for years the nymex traders had done a large business trading futures of maine s potato crop . according to leah mcgrath goodman s 2011 book the asylum 5 manipulation in this market was commonplace performed by various parties including potato inspectors and nymex traders . the worst incident was the 1970s potato bust when idaho potato magnate j. r. simplot allegedly went short in huge numbers leaving a large amount of contracts unsettled at the expiration date resulting in a large number of defaulted delivery contracts . a public outcry followed and the newly created commodity futures trading commission held hearings . nymex was barred from trading not only potatoes futures but from entering new areas it hadn t traded in before . nymex s reputation was severely damaged because as future chairman michel marks told goodman in his book the essence of an exchange is the sanctity of its contract . 6 when the potato ban came into effect nymex s platinum palladium and heating oil markets were not significantly affected . however nymex s reputation suffered in washington d.c. especially with the regulations in the commodity futures trading commission cftc the president of the exchange richard leone brought in john elting treat white house energy adviser to presidents carter and reagan to help restore the credibility of nymex and to help the exchange explore the possibility of entering the petroleum market recognizing the great potential for moving well beyond the limited size of the new york heating oil market . when leone left nymex in 1981 as a result of a strong disagreement with the nymex board john elting treat was asked to replace him as president . the launching of the wti crude oil contract was championed by treat who with difficulty convinced the board and the two marks family members veteran and highly respected floor trader francis marks and his son michael who had just become chairman of the board to take a chance on trading crude oil . arnold safir was one of the members of an advisory committee formed by treat to help design the new contract . treat with board chairman marks and the support of the rest of the nymex board eventually chose west texas intermediate wti as the traded product and cushing oklahoma as the delivery point . robin woodhead who later became the first chairman of the international petroleum exchange ipe in london started an active dialogue with treat about whether they could start a brent crude oil contracts . treat was very supportive and gave woodhead strong support and a lot of advice . shortly thereafter after substantial conversations the ipe was formally launched and started trading brent . treat and his research staff then began looking for other oil products to trade . gasoline was clearly next on the product list but there was a lot of debate about where the delivery point should be . the gulf coast was the easiest but the exchange also looked at california markets but decided they wouldn t work . treat then started looking simultaneously at launching crude and later products options contracts . he found that the existing nymex floor traders didn t have the mathematical skills necessary to trade options so the exchange offered financial inducements to get members of the american stock exchange s options traders to come over and trade options on petroleum futures . under treat s leadership nymex also began to research the potential for trading natural gas and electricity but focused first on natural gas . product quality of natural gas was not an issue in that market but the delivery point was a more difficult choice . after launching the original crude oil futures contract treat began an aggressive marketing campaign to first bring in the large us and british oil companies and then moved on to pull in the large middle east producers . it took almost a year to get the first us majors to start trading but several majors did not start for almost 5 years . the initial resistance from the opec producers was almost impossible to break through although some finally gave in among the first being venezuela . the rumors on the floor at that time were the arab producers would trade gold futures as a proxy for oil prices since the arabs were major purchasers of gold and would buy more when their pockets were filled by rising oil prices and conversely sell when oil revenues fell and reduced their ability to buy gold . after the potato ban nymex s existence was in doubt . most of the trading volume had been in potatoes . without a good commodity the traders had trouble making money . eventually the new chairman michel marks the son of commodities icon francis q. marks 7 along with economist arnold safer figured out that nymex could revamp an old heating oil futures contract . when the government deregulated heating oil the contract had a chance of becoming a good object of trade on the floor . a new futures contract was carefully drawn up and trading began on a tiny scale in 1978 . some of the first users of nymex heating oil deliveries were small scale suppliers of people in the northern united states . 8 nymex s business threatened some entrenched interests like big oil and government groups like opec that had traditionally controlled oil prices . nymex provided an open market and thus transparent pricing for heating oil and eventually crude oil gasoline and natural gas . nymex s oil futures contracts were standardized for the delivery of west texas intermediate light sweet crude oil to cushing . 9 growth edit the energy trading business took off and nymex boomed . the open outcry floor became a cacophony of shouting traders and pit cards . the pits became a place where many people without much education or ability to fit into wall street could have a chance at being rich . many traders and executives became millionaires . they threw lavish parties and went on exotic vacations . many of these people also became heavily involved in drugs and prostitution with drugs being traded right on the floor of the exchange . goodman s book tells the stories of many of the personalities that built the exchange in this era . 5 comex commodity exchange inc one of the exchanges that shared 4 world trade center with nymex had traditionally looked down on nymex for being smaller and for having the toxic reputation from the potato bust . with nymex s energy trading boom it became much larger and wealtheir than comex . on august 3 1994 the nymex and comex finally merged under the nymex name . by the late 1990s there were more people working on the nymex floor than there was space for them . in 1997 the nymex moved to a new building on the southwestern portion of manhattan part of a complex called the world financial center . 5 10 11 12 13 later history edit september 11 2001 attacks edit the nybot s original headquarters and trading floor were destroyed in the september 11 2001 terrorist attacks on the world trade center . 14 several nymex people were lost in the tragedy even though the new nymex building itself was mostly undamaged . despite the area s devastation the exchange s management and staff had the exchange back up and running in very short order . 5 on february 26 2003 the new york board of trade