CME Globex

CME Globex is the electronic trading platform of CME Group on which futures such as ES, NQ, the micros and the currency contracts trade through a central limit order book. It runs nearly around the clock from Sunday evening to Friday afternoon, Chicago time, with a daily maintenance break, and it is the source of the executions and depth that order flow tools display.

Senzoukria · Glossary · Updated September 2026

What Globex is

Globex is the matching engine and market-data platform for CME Group's electronic markets. Every order in a Globex-listed contract enters one central limit order book, is matched by the exchange's rules and is published in the exchange's data feed. That single book and single tape are what make futures order flow reproducible: two traders with entitled feeds see the same executions and the same displayed depth for the same contract.

Sessions on Globex

  • The trading week opens on Sunday evening and closes on Friday afternoon, Chicago time, with a daily maintenance break between sessions.
  • For the equity index futures, the daily session open used by session-based indicators is 17:00 CT, so a trading day starts the previous evening rather than at midnight.
  • Regular US cash hours fall inside the Globex session; volume profiles differ depending on whether they include the overnight part.

Data and entitlements

Globex market data reaches a trading application through a data vendor or a broker connection such as Rithmic. Access is billed by the data source and the exchange, separately from any software subscription. What an account receives (live trades, depth at price level or by order, historical trades, historical depth) is set per account and per plant, and a successful login does not by itself prove any of those entitlements.

In Senzoukria

The Rithmic Direct source, introduced in the tour as "Rithmic — CME futures", connects a futures account for ES, NQ and the other CME contracts, with paper and live plants kept separate. The News module labels the day's phases "Globex open", "Globex break" and "Globex closed" alongside the Sydney, Tokyo, London and New York sessions, and the settings timezone hint reads "NY / CHI for futures sessions, UTC for crypto". Session indicators such as "Session Open" and "Session CVD" anchor to the 17:00 CT session open. Currency futures such as the euro contract are charted through the same futures connections; there is no retail forex broker integration.

Common mistakes

  • Starting the session at midnight local time and getting a different profile and delta from everyone anchored at the Globex open.
  • Assuming exchange data is included in a charting subscription.
  • Comparing spot FX order flow from a broker with the single-book record of a CME currency future.

This page in other languages

Frequently asked questions

Is Globex the same thing as the CME exchange?
Globex is the electronic platform operated by CME Group; the exchanges (CME, CBOT, NYMEX, COMEX) list the products that trade on it. For an order flow trader the distinction rarely matters: the contract's book and tape are the Globex record, and entitlements are granted per exchange.
When does the Globex session start for ES and NQ?
The daily session used by session-based indicators opens at 17:00 Chicago time on the previous calendar evening. Regular US cash hours sit inside that session. A cumulative delta or a session open anchored at midnight will not match one anchored at the Globex open.
Why is currency order flow only available on futures?
Spot FX is decentralised, with no central limit order book and no consolidated tape, so any spot order flow describes one venue. CME currency futures trade on Globex with one book and exchange-published volume, which is what a footprint or a liquidity heatmap needs to be reproducible.

Keep reading

Strategy researchTest a trading strategy, from observation to challenge rulesDefine an observation, question it with the copilot, write a rule and explore costs, drawdown and fictional challenge limits in an interactive example.Quant · Start hereQuant trading for beginners: from idea to backtestDefine a testable rule, choose suitable data and evaluate later periods after costs.Order flow · HubOrder flow trading: the complete guideThe hub. What order flow is, what it shows — aggression, delta, imbalance, absorption, liquidity — and the tools that read it, each linked to a full guide.