A year after it closed most of its futures-trading pits in Chicago and New York, CME Group said it will close option pits in New York “as computerized trading claims another victim from the world’s old-school financial system,” said Reuters. “The closures will leave products listed at the company’s Nymex and Comex exchanges available only for electronic trading.” Face-to-face trading, the “open outcry” that characterized commodity and financial markets for years, will continue for options transactions on the CME trading floor in Chicago.
Trading in options declined by 50 percent in New York in the past year, said Reuters. Computer networks are the main channel of trading. Options, which allow buyers the chance to trade on prices without having to acquire the underlying asset, “have grown in complexity as players have sought more ways to hedge against market volatility,” said the news agency. CME Group’s major rival, IntercontinentalExchange, closed its New York cotton, coffee, cocoa and orange juice pits in 2012 and moved the remaining options trading to an electronic system.