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A trader trades in the S&P 500 futures pit at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
The CME Group just announced that it will close most of its futures trading pits in Chicago and New York by this summer.
"As open outcry futures trading has fallen to just one percent of the company's total futures volume, CME Group today announced it will close most of its futures trading pits in Chicago and New York by July 2, 2015. The floor-based S&P 500 futures market, which continues to provide an important venue for trading the underlying futures contract for the open outcry S&P 500 options on futures contract, will remain open on CME Group's Chicago trading floor," the CME said in a press release.
The move is not surprising.
Open-outcry is a form of communication on the trading floor where traders use hand signals to exchange information about buy and sell orders. This type of face-to-face trading has basically died out in recent years with the rise of electronic trading.
However, even when the exchange flipped to an electronic platform, there was still open-outcry trading in the pits. Most of the futures are traded electronically anyway.
Here's the full release:
As open outcry futures trading has fallen to just one percent of the company's total futures volume, CME Group today announced it will close most of its futures trading pits in Chicago and New York by July 2, 2015. The floor-based S&P 500 futures market, which continues to provide an important venue for trading the underlying futures contract for the open outcry S&P 500 options on futures contract, will remain open on CME Group's Chicago trading floor.
Options on futures contracts, which continue to trade actively on both the floor and the screen, will remain open on both trading floors except for the DJIA ($10) and NASDAQ-100 open outcry equity index options markets which are designed to deliver into floor-based futures contracts.
With the exception of the S&P 500 futures and options on futures pits which will remain open, equity index futures pits and the DJIA($10) and NASDAQ-100 options pits will close following the expiration of the June 2015 contract on June 19, 2015. All other futures pits will close on July 2. In addition, in Chicago, all options pits will be located on a single floor in the company's Financial Room by September.
To assist floor traders with the transition going forward, the company will make every attempt to make booth space available to those who want to trade electronically following the closure of the open outcry futures pits.
CME Group will hold members' meetings in Chicago and New York to answer questions and discuss transition plans. Only current member owners will be admitted.