Having celebrated its 100th birthday last year, the Rosario Futures Exchange is enjoying record volumes for its flagship dollar/peso futures, amid extreme volatility in the Argentine capital markets. But the exchange is not resting on its laurels. It is merging with the Rosario Stock Exchange, and a deal with the Buenos Aires Futures Market is in the air. Tom Osborn discovers a successful small exchange that wants to move up to a bigger league.
“Not many emerging markets have a history as long as that of Argentina,” says Ismael Caram, chief operating officer of the Rosario Futures Exchange.
It’s a double edged comment. Trading volumes on Rofex, relative to the size of the economy, are lower now than they were in the 1920s, in the boom years before the last great global financial crisis.
The bourse is 50% owned by the Rosario Board of Trade,...