He has a deal called Man over Market, setups, chat room and says they fund traders after a paper trial but have no idea how it's going or it's value.
I am connected with him on Linkedin and for a while he had a pre-market analysis which I sometimes took in. Seemed like he had gotten some good technical skills but when he launched MOM, I forgot about him.
Pretty much whoever shouts SOLD or MINE first... or whoever gives the price and qty to buy/sell first... That's still the same, first in gets the trade. In the pit, that meant having a loud voice and also making sure they (the broker) knows you were the one that shouted... not the guy next to you. So, standing out... that meant if you're small and thin you would have a more difficult time to get above the crowd. Sometimes if you were the one shouting the trade, the guy next to you would screw you over and take it. Not really decent... As @Robert Morse says, when talking to a broker like GFI on the phone (like MM's in options) you want to be first in line, with a good price. And when a different price trades without you, you still try to get in the trade if it suits you... you push the broker a bit. It effeminately helps if you're on good terms with them. So that's still pretty similar to the pit I guess. All those trades are recorded on tape as well, so if there's a mix-up you can always play-back the phone recordings. That doesn't happen in the pit, since nothing is recorded... you just aim for fairness and some officials that should 'keep the peace'. On your random order matching... why would you do that? It's not random, first in first out, or pro-rata for MM quotes. Sometimes it might seem you should've gotten the trade when you know you're first.. but there are other order types that might be in place in front of you (Iceberg etc). Or you are routed to a certain exchange and not on the one that actually trades.
When I first visited the pits at the CBOT building, my broker, who had been in the pits since the early 80s, told me a story about Charlie di Francesca willingly losing his own money on a trade to teach a lesson to a particular member. I don't remember what happened exactly and if this story has been publicized. Anybody knows what I am talking about?