One of the last forms of trading developed over a long stock’s practice is fading away.
On Wednesday the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace CME Group Inc. announced its futures trading pits in Chicago and New York will be changed because electronic trading prevail as a way of selling and buying futures. The measure will come into force by July 2, so huge crowds screaming over prices of oil, grains and interest rates will disappear.
“The time has finally come,” said Leo Melamed, chairman emeritus at CME and a former chairman who helped the exchange develop its electronic trading platform in the late 1980s. “It’s a historic moment, but one that I think was always out there and was going to happen.”
Some pits will remain at the CME, including for the S&P 500 futures and for options on futures. Owing to the complexity of arranging deals that comprise several kinds of contracts, its transfer to screens is much slower.
The CME Group was formed by the merger of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) in 2007. It is headquartered in Chicago Loop, Illinois.
Early it was announced that CME Group Inc. operating in Chicago and New York plans to offer dollar contracts in Hong Kong.
