The New York Board of Trade’s decision to develop electronic trading for its agricultural products earned mixed reviews on Wednesday, with some industry players fearing it would pull the plug on the exchange’s cherished and raucous open-outcry system of trading.
Some say electronic trading is inevitable and should be embraced since it would raise the number of players investing in NYBOT’s surging commodity markets. Others fear electronic trading would eliminate the brokers and floor dealers who populate the trading pits, screaming “sell” and “buy” orders through complex hand signals, and would rob smaller markets of the liquidity they need to stay viable.
“NYBOT is the last of the old guard,” Keith Brown, president of commodity firm Keith Brown and Co. in Moultrie, Georgia, told Reuters by telephone. “You just can’t deny technology.”
