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Open outcry is a method of communication between professionals on a stock exchange or futures exchange, typically on a trading floor. It involves shouting and the use of hand signals to transfer information primarily about buy and sell orders. [2] The part of the trading floor where this takes place is called a pit.
Pit is a fast-paced card game for three to eight players, designed to simulate open outcry bidding for commodities. The game first went on sale in 1904 by the American games company Parker Brothers. [1] The inspirations were the Chicago Board of Trade (known as the Pit) and the US Corn Exchange.
Trading was conducted by open outcry, where traders meet on the trading floor (in what is called the pit) to conduct trades. The Exchange was originally housed in the historic Royal Exchange building near Bank but then moved to Cannon Bridge in 1991. [3] [4]
The pits are areas of the floor that are lowered to facilitate communication, somewhat like a miniature amphitheater. The pits can be raised and lowered depending on trading volume. To an onlooker, the open outcry system can look chaotic and confusing, but in reality, the system is a tried and true method of accurate and efficient trading.
The energy trading business took off, and NYMEX boomed. The open outcry floor became a cacophony of shouting traders and pit cards. The pits became a place where many people without much education or ability to fit into Wall Street could have a chance at being rich.
The first major electronic alternative was the Instinet, a machine that could bypass the trading floor and handle one another on a personal basis. The use of electronic mediums to conduct tasks done by floor traders has increased throughout the years, however there are many exchanges in the United States such as the NYSE that prefer to use the open outcry method that involves verbal communication.
The terms "dealing room" and "trading floor" are also used, the latter being inspired from that of an open outcry stock exchange. As open outcry is gradually replaced by electronic trading , the trading room becomes the only remaining place that is emblematic of the financial market.
On December 19, 2008, the Minneapolis Grain Exchange ceased operations of the open outcry trading floor, but continues daily operations for the electronic processing of financial transactions. Today, HRSW futures trade exclusively electronically and options trade side-by-side.