New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX)

The New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc., is the world's largest physical commodity futures exchange and the preeminent trading forum for energy and precious metals. The Exchange has stood for market integrity and price transparency for more than 135 years. Transactions executed on the Exchange avoid the risk of counterparty default because the NYMEX clearinghouse acts as the counterparty to every trade. Trading is conducted in energy, metals, softs, and environmental commodity futures and options via the CME Globex® electronic trading system, open outcry, and NYMEX ClearPort®. NYMEX pioneered the development of energy futures and options contracts in 1978 as means of bringing price transparency and risk management to this vital market.

The above information was obtained from http://www.nymex.com.