Houston Street Exchange
Largest electronic marketplace for physical crude oil and refined products in the united states.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
N/A | Seed | ||
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
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Houston Street Exchange originated as a pioneering web-based trading platform, launching in July 1999 with Frank Getman at the helm as CEO. Initially focusing on the power sector, the company provided a more efficient way for traders to view the entire market depth and breadth. The firm was a majority-owned subsidiary of BayCorp Holdings, Ltd. and attracted significant investments, including a notable minority stake from Williams Energy Marketing & Trading and $6 million from Equiva, a joint venture of Shell and Texaco.
The company's offerings included PowerPit, a platform designed for the physical trading of power, and Speedway, which catered to financial power traders dealing in standardized bulk increments. Houston Street Exchange operated on a transaction-based fee model, charging a small fee per megawatt-hour traded. The vision was to expand into other energy markets, with plans for web-based platforms for crude and refined products.
Over time, the operations of Houston Street Exchange were integrated into the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group, and its technological foundation evolved into what is now known as CME Direct, with the original website redirecting to the CME Direct platform. CME Direct is a comprehensive, web-based trading application that serves as a front-end for CME Group's extensive markets. This platform provides traders and brokers with side-by-side online trading access to a wide array of products, including exchange-listed futures and options, as well as over-the-counter (OTC) markets.
The platform is designed for professional traders, institutions, and hedge fund managers, offering a highly configurable and secure trading environment. Key features include a consolidated view for executing complex strategies, advanced options analytics, and the ability to access liquidity across all asset classes on a single screen. CME Direct also incorporates tools like an Excel Add-In for data analysis and CME Direct Messenger, an instant messaging platform tailored for traders and brokers. The service is offered free of charge, with potential waivers for market data fees, providing a cost-efficient solution for accessing CME Group's markets.
Keywords: energy trading, power trading, crude oil trading, refined products trading, online commodity exchange, Frank Getman, BayCorp Holdings, Williams Energy, Equiva, PowerPit, Speedway, CME Group, CME Direct, futures trading, options trading, OTC trading, electronic trading platform, financial derivatives, commodity swaps, interest rate swaps, block trades, professional traders, institutional trading, hedge funds, market liquidity, trading lifecycle solutions, commodity brokers