The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has bought Liquidity Direct Technology, a trading technology firm, to prepare for the challenge of Eurex, the European automated exchange, which is scheduled to start trading in the US next month.

Liquid Direct, which has developed options trading technology concentrating on complex product combinations and spreads, will complement its existing trading platform, Globex. This is used in conjunction with floor-based trading, but by December last year only about 5% of total trading in its most liquid product was carried out on the electronic platform.