ICE_Cotton_Brochure.pdfVIP

Intercontinental Exchange? (ICE?) became the center of global trading in “soft” commodities with its acquisition of the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT) in 2007. Now known as ICE Futures U.S.?, the exchange offers futures and options on futures on soft commodities including coffee, cocoa, frozen concentrated orange juice, sugar and cotton. Cotton futures have traded in New York since 1870, first on the New York Cotton Exchange, then on the New York Board of Trade and now on ICE Futures U.S. Options on cotton futures were introduced in 1984. Futures and options on futures are used by both the domestic and global cotton industries to price and hedge transactions. Because cotton is at the center of the global textiles industry, it is a preferred contract among commodity trading advisors and hedge funds. ICE Futures U.S. is the exclusive global market for Cotton No. 2 futures and options. A BRIEF HISTORY OF COTTON IN COMMERCE Cotton is grown widely around the world and has been used for at least 7,000 years. While the oldest archaeological fragments have been found in Mexico, the Indus valley in modern Pakistan was the first commercial cotton-growing center. Alexander the Great brought cotton back from the Indus Valley into the Hellenistic world. Europeans’ unfamiliarity with cotton led to the legend of “the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary” as the fiber’s source. Cotton’s impact on history has been considerable. It was imported into England by the East India Company in the 17th century and began to compete with English wool in the textile industry. However, it was the introduction of cotton into the British colonies in North America, and the development of steam-powered textile machinery in the United Kingdom, that led to cotton textiles’ central role in the 18th century British industrial revolution. Later Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin in 1794, and the opening of cotton plantations in what is now Mississippi and Alabama, led to cotton’s domin