Integrity of Market Is the Most Important Aspect of CME, Says CEO Terry Duffy

The recent charges against a West London trader in what’s now been dubbed the Flash Crash, which contributed to a 1,000 point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average on May 6, 2010, has triggered renewed focus on what’s happening in the futures industry, said Terry Duffy, Executive Chairman and President, CME Group, at the Milken Institute Global Conference this week. Duffy said everyone is quick to blame the futures market when something like this occurs, but that there was other activity going on in the market that day to be examined—like a pending meltdown in Greece. He also talked about the misunderstood communication between the CME and the man being charged—which had nothing to do with the events of May 6, he said. And on agency consolidation, Duffy gave us his thoughts on the problems with that notion.