Interesting sentence, here: "Trading floors that were 100 square feet in the 1990s have shrunk down considerably as high-speed electronic execution and algorithmic trading have stripped away the human element, Ricci said." 100 square feet is 10 feet by 10 feet. My bathroom is about that size. Presumably a misprint for "10,000 square feet" or perhaps "100 feet square", would you say??
Often times the actually floor was very small and each had like steps that encircled the floor, each were like 4 inches higher, just enough for taller traders to see and if you were short, some bring a phone book to stand on, once you found "your" area, most would be married to it in life time and there be fistfights if you dare steal another traders spot, no one was assigned an area, but....the largest pit was Eurodollar-like size of hockey rink, the meats were smaller but very limited traders. I had cousins that worked at CME and CBOT, traders would eat garlic in morning, some never wear deodorant, eat couple cans of beans on way to work each morning or not change socks to make it appalling to have to stand next to them, lots of traders wear vicks under their noses. boys will be boys.