The Chicago Mercantile Exchange has denied compensation claims from natural gas traders who lost money during a January technical glitch that disrupted settlement price calculations. The outage affected futures contracts underpinning the $150 billion-a-year US gas market, occurring during the critical two-minute window when settlement prices are determined.

Traders expressed frustration over both the CME's rejection of their claims and the exchange's lack of transparency about what caused the January malfunction and a subsequent February disruption. The timing of both outages proved particularly damaging, with the January glitch coinciding with gas options expiration and the February issue hitting just before March futures contract expiration.

While investors routinely seek redress in disputes with other traders, claims against exchanges themselves leading to potential arbitration are highly unusual. The CME caps its liability at $200,000 per claim monthly. Meanwhile, rival Intercontinental Exchange saw unaffected gas trading during both outages, potentially positioning it to capture migrating trading volume, though industry experts suggest any shift would occur gradually due to functional differences between the contracts.