Once-Dynamic Trading Pits Close

The 145-year-old futures trading pit in Chicago, described by the Wall Street Journal as “one of the last vestiges of the swashbuckling era of commodities floor trading,” shut down most of its operation this week.

CME Group Inc., the world’s largest futures-market operator, also announced it will close futures trading pits in New York.

The move has long been considered inevitable as electronic trading has become the primary means to buy and sell futures contracts.

In the early 1990s, more than 10,000 people would crowd onto the floor of the Chicago trading pits. Recently, the pits attracted around 1,200 people. The closings this week inspired nostalgia.

The Chicago pits—so named because of a tiered, descending floor—gained a central position in the global agricultural commodities trade, The Journal wrote, with its bellowing traders helping set world benchmark prices for corn, cattle and pork bellies. The cavernous room roared to life at the start of the trading day and sustained a frenetic pace throughout.

The pits gave farmers opportunities to hedge their crops and young professionals willing to take on “the pits” opportunities to prove their mettle. S