Buy, buy, buy

摘要

Traders cannot resist a bet, even on their own fate. Amid a bidding war over Chicago's derivatives exchanges, the us Futures Exchange, also based in the Windy City, has launched a "binary" contract which allows speculators to take a punt on whether the IntercontinentalEx-change (ICE) can snatch the Chicago Board of Trade, America's oldest derivatives exchange, from the grasp of the biggest, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). Until recently ICE, a fast-growing electronic upstart from Atlanta, had the edge. Then the CME upped its offer to $9.8 billion and its chances of success-as measured by the binary contracts-leapt to over 70%.