CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) executive Derek Sammann told investors that the derivatives exchange is benefiting from heightened global uncertainty, rising participation outside the U.S., and increasing demand from newer retail traders, while continuing to lean on its vertically integrated clearing model and growing non-transactional revenue streams.

Speaking at a Raymond James event, Sammann, the company’s head of Commodities Markets, described the current period as “probably the most interesting time” in his 35-year career in financial services. He framed CME’s role around a “dual mandate” of price transparency through benchmark futures and options markets and risk management through its clearinghouse.

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Sammann said CME operates “the world’s leading derivatives exchange,” offering benchmark products across major asset classes including fixed income, equities, foreign exchange, and commodities such as energy, metals, and agricultural products. He noted that CME’s standardized, listed futures and options provide “lit, transparent markets” for most of the trading day during the week and are used by global participants to take on or hedge risk.

On the technology side, he pointed to CME’s Globex platform, which he said distributes liquidity to roughly 180,000 customers globally. Sammann also highlighted a strategic partnership with Google that includes a billion-dollar stake in CME, aimed at building cloud capabilities and supporting migration efforts.

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He emphasized that, unlike SEC-regulated securities exchanges, derivatives exchanges such as CME can own their own clearinghouses. Sammann said CME’s vertically integrated model means products traded on CME clear at CME, which he characterized as providing both “offensive and defensive” advantages, high barriers to entry, and high switching costs for customers.

Reviewing recent performance, Sammann said the company grew volumes and revenues by 6% over the last 12 months, which he attributed in part to disciplined pricing power and evolving services that create new revenue streams. He cited a 69.4% adjusted operating margin and said the firm’s fixed-cost, scalable model allows more incremental revenue to flow to the bottom line.

• Average daily volume (ADV) in 2025: 28.1 million contracts per day, up 6% year over year (a record, according to Sammann).

• Year-to-date ADV: 35.5 million contracts per day, up 16% year to date.

• Single-day activity: Sammann said CME traded 45 million contracts “yesterday,” which he linked to increased risk and uncertainty.

• Revenue mix (as stated): about $5.3 billion in transactional revenue and $1.7 billion in non-transactional revenue.

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He also said CME has demonstrated an ability to grow in a range of environments, including periods of high volatility as well as the “10 years of zero interest rate policy.”

Sammann identified growth outside the U.S. as one of CME’s major long-term drivers. He contrasted CME’s earlier footprint—describing a time when the company had only a small presence abroad—with its current structure, saying the majority of CME’s salespeople are now in London and that “marginal growth is taking place outside the U.S.”

He said CME’s U.S. business continues to grow in low single digits, while non-U.S. business has grown close to 10% over the last five years. He also said the non-U.S. segment tends to come with a higher “rate per contract,” which he described as supportive of margins.

Using the fourth quarter of the prior year as an example, he said roughly 47% of CME’s foreign exchange and metals business comes from outside the U.S., and he noted that commodities businesses—metals, energy, and agriculture—rank among the highest in non-U.S. participation.

Sammann said CME remains “at its core” an institutional market, but has expanded products and capabilities aimed at retail-oriented participation. He described an earlier emphasis on “Protail” traders—professional retail participants trading through brokers such as Interactive Brokers or Charles Schwab—while noting that newer “new-to-futures” broker platforms have broadened the opportunity set. He mentioned tastytrade, Plus500, Webull, and Robinhood as examples of brokers helping introduce new retail participants to futures.

He highlighted growth in CME’s micro contract suite, describing micro contracts as smaller versions of standard futures. Examples he gave included:

• Gold: a standard 100-ounce contract, a 10-ounce Micro Gold contract, and a newer 1-ounce contract.

• Equities: E-mini contracts and smaller Micro E-mini versions.

• Silver: a smaller 100-ounce product introduced versus a benchmark 5,000-ounce contract.

Sammann said this retail segment is “net new” and does not displace existing activity. He also described pricing dynamics in commodities retail products, using gold as an example: a non-member customer pays $1.55 per contract for the 100-ounce contract, compared with $0.65 for the 10-ounce micro contract. He added that the 1-ounce gold contract launched at the end of 2024 is priced at “35% of the main contract,” and argued that CME has been able to exercise prudent pricing power due to price inelasticity in some retail segments.

In commodities, Sammann said CME generates a little over $1.8 billion per year in transaction fees across energy, agriculture, and metals. He broke out the business as including benchmarks such as WTI crude oil and Henry Hub natural gas in energy; grains and oilseeds in agriculture; and precious metals as well as industrial and battery metals in metals. He also said CME is “100% of the futures market for battery metals globally,” listing cobalt and lithium-related products as examples.

He argued that the lines between energy, agriculture, and metals have blurred with the energy transition, driving more cross-asset participation—such as agricultural customers trading energy products due to biofuel linkages and energy traders engaging more in metals tied to electrification.

Sammann repeatedly emphasized cross-margining benefits from clearing multiple products in one clearinghouse. He said CME is providing up to $80 billion a day in margin offsets to customers, describing it as a source of capital efficiency that raises switching costs and makes competition more difficult. He also noted CME is expanding participation through a partnership with DTCC related to Treasury clearing.

On non-transactional revenue, he highlighted three areas: CME’s proprietary market data business (which he said generated over $800 million in revenue and grew 13% last year), income from CME’s 27% stake in S&P Dow Jones Indices, and interest income on clearinghouse collateral balances. Sammann said interest income was “a little short of $600 million” last year, with a portion shared with customers.

In closing remarks, Sammann pointed to CME’s capital return approach, saying the company has increased its quarterly dividend annually and has also increased its annual variable dividend each year. He cited a 4.1% dividend yield (inclusive of the variable dividend) and said the most recent variable dividend was $6.15 per share, alongside a share buyback program that he said is being executed.

CME Group Inc is a global markets company that operates some of the world’s largest and most liquid derivatives exchanges, including the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and COMEX. The firm offers futures and options contracts across a broad range of asset classes — including interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities and metals — and serves a diverse client base of institutional investors, commercial hedgers, brokers and retail participants.

The company’s core services include electronic trading on the CME Globex platform, central clearing through CME Clearing, and distribution of market data, indexes and analytics.

The article “CME Group Touts Record Futures Volume as Global Uncertainty Fuels Trading, Retail Growth at Conference” was originally published by MarketBeat.