Darkest hour before dawn

The future of the international electronic futures trading system Globex is uncertain given its failure to attract members, and the low trading volume on Globex. Globex was developed by Reuters, the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and the agreement between the partners is due be renegotiated in April 1994. The failure of Globex is partly due to the competition between futures exchanges, but also to the basic question of whether the futures market will ever be global enough for the system to be profitable.