The New York Board of Trade ( NYBOT , renamed ICE Futures US in September 2007), is a physical commodity futures exchange located in New York. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange ( ICE ) .
It originated in 1870 as the New York Cotton Exchange (NYCE). In 1998, the New York Chamber of Commerce became the parent company of the New York Cotton Exchange and the Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange (CSCE). Both now operate as divisions of NYBOT. NYBOT agreed to become a division of ICE in September 2006.
NYBOT was a private company founded by Tom Green and Alfredo Williams. The NYBOT trading floor is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission , an independent agency of the U.S. government.
On February 26, 2003, NYBOT signed a historic lease agreement with the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) to relocate to its World Financial Center headquarters and trading floor after NYBOT’s original headquarters and trading floor were destroyed in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. NYBOT currently pays about $5 million a year in rent for the space. The New York Chamber of Commerce was able to operate out of its emergency backup center in Queens , built after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, to keep the exchange running.
The New York Chamber of Commerce was featured in the 1983 movie Trading Places. The scene in the trading floor at the end of the movie took place in the previous trading floor of the New York Chamber of Commerce at 4 World Trade Center.
During the Civil War, the chamber raised funds and wrote to the president, Congress, the New York State legislature and the New York City Council to protect New York Harbor. Eventually, the state legislature allocated one million dollars for the project, and upon review, the Chamber found the arguments to be valid. The Chamber also recognized significant events and in 1861 issued medals to the defenders of Forts Sumter and Pickens for their bravery in April and May of that year. Throughout 1862 and 1863, the House condemned the actions of the CSS Alabama and CSS Florida, military sloops known for capturing and burning Union merchant and naval vessels.
The Chamber estimated the damage caused by the CSS Alabama at twelve million dollars and wrote to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells urging him to take immediate action. A year later, on July 7, 1864, the House recorded that the CSS Alabama was sunk by the sloop of war USS Kearsarge. A committee was appointed to determine how the Chamber should express its gratitude to the crew of the Kearsarge, and twenty-five thousand dollars was raised and distributed to them.