How Can CME Group (CME) Be an Alternative to Correlation Risk?

Soumya Eswaran

Tue, May 19, 2026 at 9:28 AM EDT 3 min read

Cooper Investors, an investment management firm, released its first-quarter 2026 investor letter for “Cooper Investors Global Equities Fund (Unhedged)”. A copy of the letter is available to download here. The portfolio returned -9.2% in the quarter, bringing the year-to-date return to -12.2%. Currency movements negatively impacted returns by about 6%. The risk of AI disruption and the Iran War dominated the market in the quarter. The Fund uses the Capital Pool framework to categorize opportunities. The Real Assets portfolio was the only positive contributor for both the quarter and the year. The Compounding Capital Pool had poor returns, and Reversionary investments were a modest headwind. Review the Fund’s top five holdings for key 2026 insights.

In its first-quarter 2026 investor letter, Cooper Investors Global Equities Fund highlighted stocks like CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME). CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) is a leading financial derivative marketplace operator specializing in futures and options products. On May 18, 2026, CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) closed at $305.12 per share. One-month return of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) was 7.29%, and its shares gained 9.81% over the past 52 weeks. CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) has a market capitalization of $110.56 billion.

Cooper Investors Global Equities Fund stated the following regarding CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in its Q1 2026 investor letter:

"This is an extract from the September 30, 2025, Quarterly Report. “The need for risk management has never been more important – in every market and every corner of the world. Geopolitical and economic risks continue to accelerate” – Terrence Du y, CEO of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME).

CME is the largest global derivatives exchange operator. The Fund has been invested in CME since early 2024, having also owned the business from 2016 to 2021. Given its royalty like features, CME sits in the Real Assets and Income capital pool of the portfolio.

CME has been led by CEO Terry Du y since 2016. Terry’s association with CME spans multiple decades. While bartending through college in the early 1980s he frequently served traders; impressed by his quick mind, one of these traders encouraged Terry to join him on the oor of the exchange. Terry’s family was of modest means and needed to mortgage their home to raise the $50,000 required to buy a CME membership. This was a risk they almost came to regret when in the first months of his trading career Terry misheard an order resulting in a large nancial loss. Fortunately, his mentor stepped in to provide a guarantee and Terry committed to three years of working multiple jobs to pay o his losses. This lesson, around approaching risk and what to do when things don’t go as expected, has stuck with him ever since…” (Click here to read the full text)