most of the times it's very in-convenient, if equity collapses in the final hour, and you naturally want to get out , but couldn't . why?
You mean the "pit session" for grains going from 9:30am to 1:15pm and then trading resuming again at....?....6pm or 7pm (Chicago time)? That's what the exchanges and cash-market players want to maintain. They prefer to concentrate trading into a narrower window of time. It's actually not such a bad thing. The CME will come under pressure to maintain electronic trading later in the afternoon until ~3:15pm, hopefully sooner rather than later.
if you understand the history of the CBOT Pits and their culture, you would understand the only real explanation. Irishmen like to sleep late and get to the bar early. hence 9:30 to 1:15. Not everything is complicated.
At one time it was said that if your last name was Murray you were in a CBOT pit but if it was your first name you were at the CME.
why Ag trades so short? the reason is, lack of liquidity. If corn liquidity the same as es, the hours will be the same
Using that logic, then why do livestock and lumber contracts trade longer hours than corn?? Definitely better liquidity in corn flatprice and spreads than in any of the livestock contracts...and definitely more than lumber or milk. In short...that is NOT the reason.
So true, irish at the board, Jews at the Merc. When CBOE got rolling there was a third distinction, smart guys went there. I guess it evolved that way because grains were more the province of Irish and Anglo Farmers, while the egg/onion/meat trades were for the most part controlled by jews in the Fulton Market district. Or something like that.