They are natural monopolies. A central marketplace is better for competition and price discovery. What they should regulate is what they charge with each trade which can exceed some broker's commissions. And data fees? Come on, just give it away and feed the industry. The CME is a fat cat compared to the FCM's, which they supposedly serve. That said, I would like to buy CME stock on the cheap. They have a moat.
CBOE's profit margin is a more or less normal 20%, by contrast CME is >50% and ICE is 36%. For whatever reason, regulators have so far allowed the exchange oligopoly to put a hard squeeze on traders and data-users. Not sure why CME would want to rock the boat and draw attention to itself under a Democratic admin by bidding for CBOE - hence the denial isn't too surprising.
Don't forget market data. How much profit should a toll-booth concession holder be permitted - 5%? CME and ICE should be forced to cut prices by 30-40%.
Then what is an exchange? The city's where exchange firms are located offer deals that make moving a cost. I think nasdaq bought OMX software years ago to run it. And then licensed the same exchange software to other countries for them to run... exchange in a box. There are so many crypto exchanges and sports books because its just software that is for sale and then white labelled.
%% The more the better; as far as exchanges/markets,comp..............................................................................
Thanks for that. However., you've got to "roll up" the major exchanges like CBOE and Nasdaq. Lots of work to analyze and rank this exchanges.