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ROFEX's HistoryThe beginningsAt the beginning of the 20th century, Argentina was already known as mainly an exporter of agricultural products, holding an open economy at all levels and reaching increasingly higher volumes in its crops, which motivated the need to improve the country's commercialization systems. With the arrival of future markets, trades began to be negotiated within an institutionalized framework. Under these circumstances and within the Rosario Board of Trade, the Mercado General de Productos Nacionales del Rosario de Santa Fe S.A. (Rosario General Exchange of National Commodities) was created on November 19, 1909, under Federico Alabern presidency. This Rosario Exchange, which will later become one of the most important exchanges at national and international level, began its activities on March 10, 1910. Since its creation, traded volumes increased significantly. From the 1930s to 1989, the Exchange limited itself to generate trades related to an activity oriented by the State from the Junta Nacional de Granos (National Grain Board). That year a presidential decree allowed futures exchanges to trade in US dollars, which represented a determining factor. In the 1990s, with the grain trade deregulation, the growth of futures and options trading became again a possibility. New starting pointFor ROFEX, 1993 was a crucial year. The Rosafe Soybean Index (ISR), which constituted a cornerstone in the history of the Exchange, was created and became the first grain instrument of its kind in the world with a great number of advantages in relation to the traditional delivery system. This new contract became an attractive instrument for investors as it is liquidated by price differences (cash settlement). Innovation and technologyROFEX was the first exchange in Argentina to apply an electronic trading system to its trades. This mechanism put ROFEX at the forefront and joined the traditional open outcry method in the trading floor. Moreover, the pace of international markets and a greater information flow required a vast availability from the trader, giving rise to the emergence of new accessible technologies. An example of this is The Finantial Information Exchange Protocol (FIX) implemented by ROFEX by mid-2007. This tool is a technical specification for electronic trading communications, which standardizes real-time financial information and is part of the Exchange's technological strategy in which the trading platform serves as a catalyst to incorporate new international brokers, improve the contribution to Data Vendors and allow the incorporation of technological players, adding value to the Exchange's brokers. Security and transparencyIn 2000, the negotiation of non-agricultural products joined the traditional trading. With the purpose of identifying this new line of products, the name "ROFEX Financial Derivatives Division" was created. Thus, on April 2002, the first exchange of standardized derivatives on financial products started to operate in Argentina. In the following years, there was a strong increase in US dollar futures trading volume in ROFEX as well as a wide offer of products (Euro, Real, Badlar rate futures, among others), positioning ROFEX as the reference exchange regarding financial derivatives in Argentina. On the other hand, in order to take advantage of the integration and regionalization process of futures exchanges, ROFEX has a demutualized corporate structure since 2006. This fact placed it at the forefront of South American exchanges, adjusting to the dynamic of derivatives industry and having the potentiality to join global trading networks. After the Exchange's opening and demutualization, ROFEX´s Board of Directors approved the admission as agricultural brokers of first-rank banks, entities and brokers, which up to that moment only traded in the commodities futures market, a fact which generated great optimism in local markets. ROFEX TodayIn the annual ranking of the Futures Industry Association (FIA), international association located in the USA, ROFEX registered a significant growth in its trading volume, moving up from the 35th to 26th place among the 52 most important exchanges in the world. ROFEX celebrated its first 100th anniversary working towards the creation of a transparent trading framework for derivatives instruments, searching to promulgate the importance that futures and options exchanges have in the economic life of a country. |
ROFEX Press ContactsNanette Giovaneli María Victoria Giachello |