Rosario Futures Exchange

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The Rosario Futures Exchange (Rofex), founded in 1909 and known locally as Mercado a Termino de Rosario, is an Argentina-based derivatives exchange offering futures and options contracts on several local agricultural commodities, energies, currencies, interest rate and stock index futures.
The exchange received approval in January 2019 from regulators to merge Rofex with the Mercado a Termino de Buenos Aires (MATba), also known as the Buenos Aires Futures and Options Exchange. The merger is expected to be completed by May 2019. 
Rofex ranked 23rd in 2018 in the Futures Industry Association's global list of derivatives exchanges measured by volume, up 28 percent to 192 million contracts from a year earlier.
== Background ==
The Rosario Futures Exchange was established in 1909 as the "Mercado General de Productos Nacionales" (General Exchange of National Commodities) and mostly traded agricultural commodities during its first years of operation. It later became a government regulatory agency and official grain purchaser. In the early 1990s Rofex began negotiating and trading grain contracts in U.S. dollars, opening the way for free trading of commodity derivatives. In 1998, Rofex introduced an electronic trading platform called e-ROFEX.
The exchange's derivatives financial division began trading U.S. dollar - Argentine peso futures and options contracts in 2002, and those contracts eventually made up the vast majority of Rofex market volume. Overall trading volume on Rofex ballooned from just 17,387 in 1996 to 18,211,700 in 2006, including a leap from 408,470 in 2002 to 8,165,481 to 2004. Driving this growth was a 30-fold leap in trading volume for the peso-dollar contract between 2002 and 2005. 
In 2006, the exchange demutualized, allowing an more open membership model and in 2010 it introduced electronic trading. 
In 2011, the exchange announced a merger deal with Mercado de Valores de Rosario (MervaRos), or the Rosario Stock Exchange, putting it in competition with the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange. That deal was subsequently voted down by the stock exchange shareholders in March 2012. 
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This followed a fallout of the potential merger between Rofex and commodity derivatives exchange Mercado a Término de Buenos Aires (Matba) in late 2010. On Dec. 27, 2011, MervaRos and Rofex announced plans for Argentina's other three domestic bourses to join the integrated group.
However, in a reversal of prior history, the exchange received approval in January 2019 from regulators to merge Rofex with the MATba, also known as the Buenos Aires Futures and Options Exchange. The merger is expected to be completed by May 2019. 
== Key contracts ==
Financial:
* US Dollar Index Futures
* Euro Index Futures
* Rofex 20 Index Futures and Options
* Bond Futures and Options
* BADLAR Interest Rate Contract
* Sovereign Bonds Futures 
Commodities:
* Soybean Futures & Options
* Soybean Index (ARS) Futures
* Wheat Futures and Options
* Corn Futures and Options
* Chicago Soybean Futures and Options
* Chicago Corn Futures and Options
* Basis Futures and Options
* Deliverable Corn Futures 
== Key People ==
*Andrés Ponte, Chairman
*Luis Alberto Herrera, Vice Chairman
==Annual Volumes==
Year	Total Annual Volume	Percent Change
2018	192,340,218 	28.1%
2017	1150,138,251 	32%
2016	113,367,851 	53.5%
2015	73,870,916 	13.3%
2014	65,187,932 	27.4%
2013	51,176,700 	.2%
2012	51,071,227 	(-) 7.1%
2011	55,000,041 	(-) 11.4%
2010	62,046,820 	20.5%
2009	51,483,429 	--
== References ==
Category:Exchanges
Category:MarketsWiki Page of the Day