1856 A group of Kansas City merchants organize a Board of Trade for the purpose of buying and selling.

1869 The Chamber of Commerce reorganizes as the Kansas City Board of Trade. After about a year, the organization changes its name to the Commercial Exchange, representing a variety of business interests. The organization continues to be referred to as the Board of Trade by members who trade grain.

1876 "Grain Call" trading is established under rules and guidelines approved by the Board of Trade. June marks the beginning of futures trading in Kansas City.

1895 All references to previous business names are dropped as 200 members organize as an association.

1925 The KCBT moves from 8th and Wyandotte to larger offices at 10th and Wyandotte.

1966 With continued growth, the KCBT moves to 4800 Main Street. For the new location, Jac T. Bowen constructs 1/2 mile of brass tubing, creating the world's largest hand-wrought brass relief. The relief depicts eight major grains - wheat, corn, sorghum, grain sorghum, oats, rye, barley and soybeans.

1973 The KCBT incorporates as a Delaware for-profit corporation.

1976 The Kansas City Board of Trade celebrates its centennial in June.

1977 The KCBT asks the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to approve a stock index futures contract based on 30 industrial stocks.

1979 In April, the KCBT requests the CFTC's approval of an amended stock index futures contract based on the Value Line®.

January 1980 President Jimmy Carter embargoes export grain shipments to the Soviet Union. The board closes for two days and reopens in a flurry of activity.

December 1981 Class B associate memberships for trading Value Line stock index futures are established.

February 24, 1982 The KCBT becomes the first exchange in the world to trade stock index futures as Value Line is launched.

July 29, 1983 The KCBT begins trading Mini Value Line stock index futures for the smaller investor.

August 3, 1983 The KCBT votes to allow leasing of exchange memberships.

October 30, 1984 Options on Kansas City wheat futures begin trading.

May 17, 1985 "Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser," public television's leading program, is broadcast from the KCBT trading floor.

February 21, 1986 A "B" membership trades for $33,000, an all-time high.

February 17, 1987 The KCBT hosts a Value Line investment forum in conjunction with the five-year anniversary of trading. Peter Eliades, Robert Prechter and Stan Weinstein give stock market forecasts to more than 1,100 members of the investment community.

October 19, 1987 The Dow falls 508 points, now commonly referred to as The Crash of '87 or Black Monday. The Value Line contract falls 47 points.

March 8, 1988 The CFTC approves a change to base the Value Line futures contract on an arithmetic, rather than a geometric, average of the underlying Value Line Composite Index.

July 1, 1992 Mini Value Line options begin trading.

November 11, 2002 Wheat options open interest sets a new record of 88,455 contracts.

2002 The exchange trading volume exceeds 3 million contracts for the first time ever by trading 3,326,836 contracts and breaking the previous record set in 2000 by nearly 25 percent. Wheat options annual trading volume sets a new record at 570,823 contracts.

May 12, 2003 Wheat options set a new single-day trading volume record of 11,374 contracts.

July 14, 2004 KCBT announces that the KCBT Clearing Corporation (KCBTCC) will begin providing clearing processing services to WCE Clearing Corporation (WCECC) marking the first time the KCBT extends its clearing processing services to another exchange.

December 12, 2004 Electronic trading begins for the KCBT wheat futures and options contracts only after regular trading hours, while the Value Line starts trading exclusively on the electronic trading platform.

September 14, 2005 Open interest in the KCBT hard red winter wheat futures contract exceeds 100,000 contracts for the first time in exchange history with open interest at 100,969 contracts, breaking the previous record of 98,939 contracts set on August 24, 2005.

April 25, 2006 The KCBT Board of Directors voted to extend the electronic trading hours of the hard red winter wheat futures contract. A second daily electronic trading session will be added to mirror the open outcry trading hours of 9:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Monday through Friday. This new daytime electronic session is in addition to the current after-hours trading session from 6:32 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Sunday through Friday. The change takes effect Aug. 1, 2006.

June 30, 2006 KCBT June trading volume in the wheat futures contract tops 500,000 for the first time ever in a single month. A total of 514,595 contracts are traded, topping the previous single-month volume record of 492,978 contracts set in February 2006.

August 1, 2006 Side-by-side trading begins in the wheat futures contract.

November 10, 2006 The exchange formally celebrated its 150th anniversary with a gala at Union Station.

2006 The Kansas City Board of Trade trades 5 million contracts for the first time, setting new annual volume records for the exchange as a whole and for the wheat futures contract. Total exchange volume for 2006 amounted to 5,287,190 contracts, topping the previous record of 3,953,536 contracts set in 2005 by 33.7 percent. For the 11th time in 13 years, the KCBT set a new annual trading volume record in the hard red winter wheat futures contract. Trading volume for 2006 was 4,763,168 contracts, breaking the previous annual record of 3,682,919 contracts set the previous year by 29.3 percent.

August 14, 2007 KCBT announces CFTC approval to make amendments to the hard red winter wheat contract starting with the July 2008 wheat futures contract. Salina/Abilene and Wichita were added as delivery points. Wheat must be No. 2 or better with a maximum of 10 IDK per 100 grams. Also implemented were a load out fee of 8 cents per bushel and a storage fee of 4.5 cents per month. Railcar load out cadence was also changed. Please see the Rule Book for more information.

December 18, 2007 A KCBT membership sells for a record $725,000.

January 13, 2008 Electronically traded products now hosted on CME Globex® platform beginning business date January 14.

April 14, 2008 Side-by-side trading in the hard red winter wheat options contract begins.

May 17, 2010 KCBT HRW wheat options open outcry closing time extended from 1:25 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

June 28, 2010 KCBT announces it has received approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to clear over-the-counter wheat calendar swaps through the Kansas City Board of Trading Clearing Corporation with a July 1 launch date.

July 30, 2010 The KCBT HRW wheat futures contract set two new daily volume records. A total of 60,534 HRW wheat futures contracts were traded, which broke the previous single-day volume record of 47,937 contracts, which was just set on July 15, by 26.2 percent. A new single-day record was also set for electronic trading as 50,336 contracts were traded, breaking the previous record of 42,913 contracts that was set on July 15.

August 2, 2010 Open interest in the KCBT HRW wheat futures contract at the end of July 30 stood at 202,876 contracts, which was an all-time high. Open interest set several new records throughout the month of July.

August 6, 2010 A new single-day record was set for HRW wheat futures electronic trading as 51,225 contracts were traded, breaking the previous record of 50,336 contracts that was set on July 30.

September 1, 2010 During August, the KCBT broke all previous monthly exchange volume records, with HRW wheat futures volume leading the gains. This was the third month in a row that a new all-time monthly volume record was set for the HRW wheat futures contract and the exchange as a whole. KCBT exchange volume traded during the month of August totaled 765,357 contracts, breaking the previous monthly volume record of 650,626 contracts set the previous month by 17.6 percent. HRW wheat futures trading volume in August amounted to 752,383 contracts, breaking the previous monthly volume record of 635,546 contracts also set last month by 18.4 percent.

September 28, 2010 The Kansas City Board of Trade’s Board of Directors approved the addition of a post settlement session for the KCBT’s hard red winter wheat options contract and voted to amend the open outcry trading closing time to 1:15 p.m. CT.

October 4, 2010 Value Line futures and options are delisted by the exchange. However, the KCBT will continue to calculate and disseminate the Value Line Index.

November 11, 2010 Open interest in the HRW wheat futures set several new open interest records during the month of November, topping out at 250,506 contracts.

November 30, 2010 The members of the Kansas City Board of Trade in a special election approved amendments to the KCBT’s Hard Red Winter wheat futures contract by a vote of 115 to 36.  The Board of Directors approved the amendments at a meeting on November 4.

January 3, 2011 The KCBT set a new annual volume trading record for the exchange as a whole in 2010, trading 5,697,874 contracts and breaking the previous annual volume record of 5,287,190 contracts set in 2006 by 7.8 percent. HRW wheat futures volume traded in 2010 set a new annual volume record as well. A total of 5,549,842 contracts were traded, breaking the previous record of 4,763,168 contracts set in 2006 by 16.5 percent. Also in 2010, the KCBT Board of Directors declared a record-high dividend of $29,000 per equity share (Class “AA” membership) for all shareholders of record as of September 28, 2010. The dividend was based on the 2010 earnings of the corporation; this is the 13th consecutive dividend the KCBT has paid to its shareholders based on annual earnings. The dividend amount represents a 7.4 percent return on investment relative to the latest share sales price of $390,000 on September 2.

January 18, 2011 The KCBT received Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) approval for amendments to the KCBT's Hard Red Winter wheat futures contract. The changes are effective with the September of 2011 wheat futures contract month.

February 1, 2011 KCBT volume traded in January 2011 topped 500,000 contracts for the first time ever in the calendar month of January, resulting in new volume records in the HRW wheat futures contract and the exchange as a whole. A total of 505,778 contracts were traded in January, breaking the previous January exchange volume record of 372,393 contracts set in 2006 by 35.8 percent. HRW wheat futures also broke the previous January volume record with a total of 485,591 contracts traded in January, exceeding the previous record of 337,641 contracts set in 2006 by 43.8 percent.

February 23, 2011 The KCBT set a new all-time daily volume record in its HRW wheat futures contract. Total HRW wheat futures volume tallied 61,328 contracts, breaking the previous daily record of 60,534 contracts set on July 30, 2010 by 1.3 percent.

March 1, 2011 KCBT trading volume was active in February 2011, resulting in the second-highest trading volume month in exchange history. As a result, new calendar month volume records were set for both the HRW wheat futures contract and the exchange as a whole. This marked the ninth consecutive month a new calendar month record was set for HRW wheat futures. New exchange calendar month volume records were set eight out of the last nine months. A total of 714,517 contracts were traded at the exchange in February, second only to 765,357 contracts traded in August 2010. HRW wheat futures trading volume in February was also the second largest in exchange history at 689,530 contracts, second only to 752,373 contracts in August 2010. The previous February volume record for the exchange was 547,690 contracts in 2006, with the previous HRW wheat futures record at 492,978 in 2006.

April 1, 2011 Robust trading volume in March 2011 yielded new calendar month volume records for both the HRW wheat futures contract and the exchange as a whole. This marked the 10th consecutive month a new calendar month record was set for HRW wheat futures. New exchange calendar month volume records were set nine out of the last 10 months. A total of 574,969 contracts were traded at the exchange in March, breaking the previous March volume record of 421,222 contracts set in 2006 by 36.5 percent. HRW wheat futures trading volume of 547,543 contracts was also a March monthly volume record, breaking the previous record of 363,605 set in 2006 by 50.6 percent. Year-to-date trading volume was posting momentous gains over trading volume in 2010, a year in which new annual volume records were set. Total exchange trading volume was running 90.3 percent higher than the previous year, with HRW wheat futures volume running 87.2 percent ahead.

May 2, 2011 Total exchange volume at the Kansas City Board of Trade in April 2011 set a new all-time volume record as 769,034 contracts were traded, breaking the previous monthly trading volume record of 765,357 contracts set in August 2010 by .5 percent. Additionally, a new calendar month record was set for the month of April, breaking the previous April record of 483,398 contracts in 2006 by 59 percent. This marked the 10th time in the last 11 months that a new record had been set. Total exchange volume was 89.8 percent greater than last April and 33.8 percent higher than the previous month.

June 1, 2011 The Kansas City Board of Trade set new calendar month records in May 2011 for both the exchange and the Hard Red Winter Wheat Futures contract. A new calendar month record was set for the month of May with total exchange volume of 539,710 contracts, breaking the previous May record of 425,682 contracts in 2006 by 21 percent. This marked the 11th time in the last 12 months that a new record had been set for total exchange volume in a calendar month. Total exchange volume was 75.1 percent greater than May of 2010. In addition, HRW wheat futures trading volume set a new calendar month record for the month of May. A total of 517,416 contracts were traded in May, marking the 12th consecutive month this occurred. The previous monthly record for May was 365,497 contracts, with the new record a 29.4 percent increase.

July 1, 2011 The Kansas City Board of Trade during the month of June traded more contracts than in any given month in the 155-year history of the exchange. New monthly volume records were set for the Hard Red Winter wheat futures contract and the exchange as a whole. Total exchange volume traded during the month of June amounted to 809,204 contracts, breaking the previous monthly volume record of 769,034 contracts set in April 2011 by 5.2 percent. This also marked the 12th time in the last 13 months that a new record was set for total exchange volume in a calendar month. Total exchange volume was 30 percent greater than the previous June record of 620,982 contracts set in 2010.  A new all-time monthly volume record was also set for the HRW wheat futures contract. A total of 772,607 contracts were traded in June, breaking the previous monthly volume record of 752,383 contracts set in August 2010. This also marked the 13th consecutive month a new calendar month record was achieved.  The previous monthly record for June was 612,733 contracts in 2010.

January 3, 2012 The Kansas City Board of Trade set new annual volume records in 2011 for Hard Red Winter wheat futures and for the exchange as a whole.  A total of 6,582,673 contracts were traded at the KCBT in 2011, setting a new record with a 15.5 percent increase over the 5,697,874 contracts traded in 2010.  In the HRW wheat futures contract, a total of 6,342,782 contracts were traded, which also set a new annual volume record over 2010 volume with a 14.3 percent increase.

[ Back to Top ]

Value Line® is a registered mark of Value Line, Inc., a New York corporation that provides financial services and publications. Since 1982, the Kansas City Board of Trade has been licensed to use the Value Line® mark in connection with its efforts to establish futures markets tied to the Value Line® index. The Kansas City Board of Trade and Value Line, Inc. are not affiliated corporate entities.