On Thursday afternoon the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s acquisition of the Chicago Board of Trade became official. It ends the 159-year history of the CBOT as an independent company. It also ends the impressive 21-month history of the CBOT stock (BOT). The CBOT stock actually outperformed the CME stock in their initial few months. The CBOT had an offering price of $54—which was raised from $44 the week before the IPO—and opened at $80.75 and never looked back.