Euro FX Futures Market
Euro FX futures and options on futures contracts traded at CME are designed to reflect changes in the U.S. dollar against the value of the euro. It is not to be confused with the Eurodollar futures contract, which is an interest rate futures product traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). Financial institutions, investment managers, corporations and private investors can use euro FX and euro FX cross-rate futures reflect the value of the euro in relation to the British pound, the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc. Euro FX cross-rate futures contracts are quoted as the counter-currency (i.e. British pound) per euro and are physically delivered at expiration.
Euro History
The euro officially became into existence in January 1999. It is the official currency of the Eurozone, which consists of 19 of the 28 member states of the European Union: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. It is officially used by the institutions of the European Union, and is consequently used daily by some 337 million Europeans as of 2015. Currency futures were first created in 1970 at the International Commercial Exchange in New York, but the contracts did not take off due to the Bretton Woods system, which was still in effect. They did so a full two years before the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) in 1975, less than one year after the system of fixed exchange rates was abandoned along with the gold standard.