Yup, different types of financial products trade differently.
Stocks and bonds are "fungible" meaning that they can be traded on any exchange that will let them, or even via private agreement which is called Over The Counter (OTC).
Futures are not fungible, so contracts that are traded have to be traded on the same exchange where you got them. The main reason for this is that each futures has a contract specification that would need to be the same across exchanges to be fungible: e.g. one contract of light-sweet crude oil is X U.S. gallons of oil at Y quality... The other reason for this is that once the contract has been traded the exchange (or your broker) assumes the counterparty risk if you or your counterpart default on the contract -- so keeping it all on a single exchange helps everyone keep track who sold what to who.
Currencies are the worst: there is no central market. It's all inter-bank agreements and probably the lightest regulated of the bunch. Retail customers get hosed because it's absolutely legal for your broker to front-run your order and skim a couple pennies off your trade.
fungible means that one item is the same as another. that they can be traded across different exchanges because of that fungibility is not necessarily a property of fungibility.
Stocks and bonds are "fungible" meaning that they can be traded on any exchange that will let them, or even via private agreement which is called Over The Counter (OTC).
Futures are not fungible, so contracts that are traded have to be traded on the same exchange where you got them. The main reason for this is that each futures has a contract specification that would need to be the same across exchanges to be fungible: e.g. one contract of light-sweet crude oil is X U.S. gallons of oil at Y quality... The other reason for this is that once the contract has been traded the exchange (or your broker) assumes the counterparty risk if you or your counterpart default on the contract -- so keeping it all on a single exchange helps everyone keep track who sold what to who.
Currencies are the worst: there is no central market. It's all inter-bank agreements and probably the lightest regulated of the bunch. Retail customers get hosed because it's absolutely legal for your broker to front-run your order and skim a couple pennies off your trade.