More detail about KCBT Structure »

The exchange is composed of three entities: the Kansas City Board of Trade; the Kansas City Board of Trade Clearing Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary; and the Board of Trade Investment Co.

The Kansas City Board of Trade is the operations arm of the exchange and oversees actual trading. Trading at the exchange is conducted by open outcry, a public auction in which members shout out bids to buy and offers to sell to everyone present.

Only KCBT members can trade in the pits.The members themselves decide how the exchange operates; members elect a Board of Directors and an Executive Committee and serve on approximately 20 committees that oversee most aspects of the exchange.

The Executive Committee serves as a liaison between the Board and the staff. Led by the President, the staff implements Board recommendations and ensures that operations run smoothly.

The Investment Co., of which the Board of Trade owns 51%, is the real-estate arm of the exchange and manages the building the exchange has been housed in since 1966.

The Clearing Corp. is the financial arm of the exchange and acts as a third party to all futures and options transactions- the buyer to every seller and the seller to every buyer. In this way, buyers and sellers do not have financial obligations to each other but instead to the Clearing Corp.

The Clearing Corp. ensures market integrity and is responsible for managing the exchange's investments. These investments provide protection against the unlikely financial insolvency of a clearing member.

Since the Clearing Corp. was established in 1913, no KCBT customer has suffered a financial loss because of a clearing-member default.