Hello Steemians,
A lot of activity around bitcoin and broadly speaking around all cryptocurrencies! I am certainly not an expert in finance, but this story about Chicago Metal Exchange (CME) Group launching Bitcoin futures is BIG! I had no idea on what derivatives, forwards and futures were (and I am still not sure I fully understand it), but is clear that this is a huge market, where big money are involved.
If you haven't already I strongly advice you to read this three articles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedge_(finance) , with attention to the Agricultural commodity price hedging, which clarify how this idea started!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_(finance)#Futures
http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/cf-bitcoin-reference-rate.html
Enjoy it!
P.S
As a personal comment I am not sure myself if this is a good or a bad thing for the Bitcoin and cryptos in general... Determining Bitcoin Reference Rate sounds strange for a decentralised currency... but maybe this is a "necessary" step to make bryptos more accepted by people!