Futures pits slide into the past in Chicago, New York

On Monday, most futures pits in Chicago and New York, which have over the decades witnessed frenzied buying and selling helping  set prices on cattle and corn, palladium and gold, and dozens of other commodities closed for good.

With the days of traders yelling and shoving and flashing hand signals behind us numbered because of online trading.

Some brokers, however, remain concerned that fewer humans could mean more violent swings in food prices.

They are concerned that turbulence could be set off by an unusually large offer from a stranger in India or another far off place to buy or sell a futures contract.

Meanwhile, CME Group Inc rang the closing bell on most of its open-outcry futures operations on Monday for the last time.

Most of the open-outcry futures operations at the world's largest futures came to an end exchange in Chicago and New York without an extended review from US regulators, downing the curtain on a tradition that at one time symbolised global financial markets.

The din of trading at CME's Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Mercantile Exchange floors had fallen over the years, and made up only 1 per cent of total volume by this year.

The exchanges' more active options pits would continue operations for now, although they too were losing out to electronic dealing.

There was some resistance from a small group of floor brokers and traders in Chicago though, who argued that the closures would hurt end-users in the Treasury and Eurodollar markets.

They asked the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to open a 90-day review of the plan, last month.

However, the CFTC said on Monday, it would not extend its review.

An agency spokesman said the closures were not considered "novel or complex" and were adequately explained by the CME.