now, this is actually a clever move. last open outcry bastion will be dead soon and the ICE gets another main pillar besides energy in case technologic developments in the future make fossil energy obsolete (just in case, of course)
It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the pits at NYBOT and NYMEX to die or at least become irrevelvant. The sooner the better.
The ICE management just closed down their own pit in 2004(could be 2005, don't remember exact date) the really hard way. I expect they will do the same with the NYBOT pit as they are really struggling to maximize profit.
kansas -> e-cbot BTW, I don't know much about these 2 exch, but I think they are going to be aquired some time in the future. The volume traded on these boards is minimal (relatively).
Actually both KC and Minneapolis Wheat have been offered electronically in "side by side" trading along with open outcry since August 1st. Very little of the total volume though (around 10% per day) has been on the screen.....
Pabst, are doing now some volume on e-CBoT ? You were a little pessimistic, but volume in C, W and Soys has grown nicely, in Corn volume is nearly 50/50. I still expect the screen to win within 12 months (for these 4 at least)
It appears you're right on. In fact if you subtract "spreads" from the total volume in Dec/06 Corn it appears that "outrights" are trading almost as much on the screen as in the pit!
Except for the fact that the pits never go down where electronic platforms do (experienced first hand on Eurex yesterday, it was down for 1.5 hours, 4 minutes after open), I do not see any other advantages of trading in a pit unless you are a local. Everybody except for the locals are at a huge disadvantage, especially when we need to trade at market. So, expansion to electronic platforms and closure of pits seems like a really good thing for everybody but locals. Am I right, or am I missing something? Thanks, redduke