Well its about time they went completely electronic like the Indexes in Europe.... then the locals would not be able to go hunting for my stops in thin markets over lunch, front running big orders and generally have one up on screen traders knowing when & where the institutions are coming in.... the seats own the exchange so its been in there interest to keep the pit runnin...they've had it too good for too long
They're going to keep SP pit until the SP pit becomes dead... Eurodollar and SP pit will stay for another while...
I hope not. They can keep their Eurodollars and f**k around with these, but the public clearly ruled that SPooz should be electronic.
You're right as usual Gann. Duffy was elected chairman because he wouldn't sell out the floor population. Similar situation at the CBOT. Treasuries have traded on ACE side by side with the pit for 3 years now. Even though 75% of Bond/Note volume is on the screen the pits remains open. With ES trading about 3x the notional value of SP each day things haven't quite reached the point where the pit is completely obsolete, BUT when you see ES jump a few points on air, You've witnessed another large institutional player come onboard Globex leaving the pit behind. My guess is the pit may never shut down completely. Jeez ND is down to several thousand contracts some days! NQ has decimated open outcry and given the relative high transaction costs of trading NQ (the contract is only worth $25k right now) the fact that institutions opt for the screen with such enthusiasm is very much an indictment of the liquidity that ND locals were providing.
I'll bet those CME shareholders who are not pit traders could sue to demand equal treatment. A corporation can't have sweetheart deals that benefit one group of shareholders over another. If unwanted pits are kept running at the expense of the corporation - then it would be a sweet-heart deal for the pit member shareholders (which we all know is the case). There is a legal name for this type of unequal treatment, I can't think of it at the moment. -- conflict of interest?
Well do keep in mind that open outcry ED futures trade close to a million contracts a day with an open interest of 5 mil. Also ED opts trade about 500k a day with OI of 7mil!!