They haven't been enforcing anti trust laws in America for 20 some years. That gets in the way of fat investment banking fees.
I don't know about that. It's always dangerous to short a massive and unchecked monopoly. The CME/CBOT monolith has near complete market dominance in all of their products. ICE squeezed them for $3 billion extra, but that's small change to them. I recommend staying neutral on the stock until six months to a year from now when they announce their bid for the CBOE. Then the Chicago trifecta will be complete and the CME's dominance will extend to options. That's where the true money is...
I was short a few deltas and luckily covered on Tuesday. Absent valuations, there is no compelling reason to short the stock. Liquidity is nil in the shares. I've been very lucky trading options on the stock in the past; three times being pinned to my body strike on long flies at expiration.