CME Group Inc. CME

The business

CME runs the futures markets. A bank hedging interest rate exposure, a fund positioning in the S&P 500, a refiner locking in crude, a farmer selling next year's corn: all of it clears through CME, which charges a fee per contract and holds the collateral. Owning the clearing house is the moat, because open positions cannot be moved to a competitor without closing them first, and nobody closes a book to save a fee.

Underneath sits a second business almost nobody discusses. CME sells market data to everyone who needs its prices, which is everyone. That revenue has no relationship to how many contracts are cleared.