Thanks for all the insights. It all makes perfect sense now. Crappy commisions, horrible fills and low volume. With electronic trading, who'd want to go back. Thanks again to all who replied.
Market goes electronic step by step: 1. ZX (Bonds/Notes side-by-side elctronic & pit, CBOT) 2. QM, QG (e-miNY, NYMEX) 3. YG, YI, YE (Mini-Sized, CBOT) 4. ZX (Ag side-by-side electronic & pit, CBOT) BTW, step #4 was Jan 02, 2004 (ZC, ZS, ZW, ZL, ZM, ZR, ZO).
LIFFE shows how it should be done. Their Robusta contract is very much a secondary market compared to the Arabica contract traded on NYBOT, yet the volume and open interest is actually higher. When it was pit traded, it had lower volume and open interest. E-mini contracts don't work electronically for ags & softs because the contracts are too damn small. The main grains and softs contracts are already too small for crying out loud, which moron came up with the idea to make them even smaller? The obvious conclusion is that moving full-size contracts to full electronic trading, having NO dual trading, and completely abolishing the pit asap will significantly increase volume, open interest, market access, price discovery, fill speed, and liquidity, whilst driving down costs and increasing exchange profits. The only possible explanation for why it has not yet been done is that the US exchanges are run by a bunch of incompetents and vested interests trying desperately to hang onto their monopoly over order flow. Luckily they are going to have to become competitive, get taken over or go bust within the next few years as Eurex USA will steal their business. The luddite tendencies in New York and Chicago are really a disgrace to a proud 100+ year legacy of efficient and liquid US futures markets. If Arthur Cutten were alive now he'd kick their ass.
"Vested interests" is the key. I think demutualization may be a step toward e-trading. As long as the exchanges are owned or controlled by pit traders, e-trading will be handicapped. [Richard]