Your point REALLY turns this thread back on topic. What is that energy and grain commercials value most? Transparency! That's why those pits will survive.
Exactly, sorry to get a little off topic, but some guys love to know who is doing what, I worked in the grains for a little while and the ADM's, Bunge, Central Soya/Produce's of the world loved to know who was doing what. What is the big paper in the crush doing? What are the commercials in soybean oil doing? Where are the funds positioned? In grains, more of a local midwest market, don't think the screen would be as liquid and transparent, while the energies, a worldwide market, might be able to scrounge up enough liquidity across the globe. Perfect example, compare CBOT wheat futures to LIFFE wheat futures, actually there is no comparison to the transparency and liquidity of pit traded grains (granted they are different grades of wheat) versus the screen. On the other hand, IPE Brent Oil is just as liquid as NYMEX oil, or almost there.
i work in a market that is considered a lay-up for going electronic and transparency is no less valuable to the biggest players there as well. they think algorithms can just take over, and, in theory, that's true. But what will happen when the algorithms penny each other and mask their size and everything else? I'm not much of a sci-fi fan but in college I read an Asimov story about a robot in a spaceship that was caught in an orbit and couldn't get out for some goofy reason -- the result of an unforseen consequence in an algorithm. The unintended consequences will probably kill many opportunities and I have a hunch that they may create some of the volatile-backlash type.