Trading by open outcry in a pit

What was ceded is matching buyers and sellers by voice and hand signal in a crowd, a method that priced grain and interest rates for more than a century. The exchange kept a few markets on the floor, including options and the S&P 500 futures pit, so the practice did not end in a single day. The pit also carried information that no screen shows: who is buying, how loud the room has become, which broker looks frightened. Traders say that disappeared with the noise. What is not ceded is the judgment about price itself, which still belongs to people, now sitting at screens and writing the rules that their machines follow.