I've just read the highly ambiguous statement on the cbot website regarding the recent crashes. It sounds like the sort of thing you'd hear from an incompetent IT support department, "we're not sure what went wrong but hopefully it's ok now". Doesn't give me any faith at all in trading their products.
In a way, that is not surprising. From what I have seen / talked to, there is definitely a morale problem in CBOT these days. Since it has been clearly stated in the CME/CBOT merger documents that eCBOT will be obsorbed by Globex once the merger gets completed. Look at merger presentation document (slide 11): http://www.cme.com/files/ccslides.ppt It should be clear that most of the $125m annual savings will be from getting out from the eCBOT contract, and of course, IT staff / infrastructure reductions. Now, if you are an employee in the current eCBOT support organization, how dedicated will you be to your current job? Knowing that there is a high likelihood you won't have a job in 6-10 months? And any slip in the support morale, combined with the rapid increasing trading volume, could be a highly problematic situation. In a way, I won't be surprised if some of the key personnel are already leaving, since their skillsets (in supporting high-performance trading systems) are in high demand.
Implied Pricing will be enabled beginning with the open at 6:30 p.m. Chicago time on Wednesday, January 31, 2007 (trade date February 1) for the following CBOT agricultural futures products: Corn Ethanol Soybeans Soybean Meal Soybean Oil South American Soybeans Wheat Rice Oats Please note that Implied Pricing remains enabled for CBOT Metals and Fed Fund futures, as well as all applicable Hosted Exchange agricultural products. If you have any questions about this Bulletin, please contact Market Operations at 312-347-4600 or your Key Account Manager. http://www.cbot.com/cbot/pub/cont_detail/0,3206,1123+45797,00.html ..... :eek: