The New York Board of Trade was a private company founded by Tom Green and Alfredo Williams prior to its merger. The floor of the NYBOT is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, an independent agency of the United States Government. Each individual company that trades on the exchange must send its own independent brokers. Therefore, a few employees on the floor of the exchange represent a big corporation and the exchange employees only record the transactions and have nothing to do with the actual trade.
On May 7, 2004, NYBOT opened a new trading pit for ethanol futures.[5] Ethanol is a common type of alcohol which can be used as a fuel. This type of fuel has become a very popular alternative to fossil fuels due to the current energy crisis.
The New York Board of Trade was featured in the 1983 movie Trading Places, where two rich brothers came up with a scheme to buy out all of the frozen concentrate orange juice market using inside information from the Department of Agriculture. The trading floor scene at the end of the movie was set at the previous trading floor of the New York Board of Trade at 4 World Trade Center.
The official address of the New York Board of Trade headquarters and trading facility, located in the New York Mercantile Exchange Building, is One North End Avenue, New York, NY 10282-1101.
One of the most innovative concepts pioneered at the exchange is the ability given to seat holders to trade seats that they do not actually own. Seatholders may sell short seats they do not have title to as well as purchase seats they have intention of holding as an investment.