MORE TRADERS SOUND OFF ABOUT THE CME WALK OUT, AND THEY HAVE A BRUTAL MESSAGE FOR THE PROTESTERS
- By Julia La Roche
A bunch of CME Group independent floor traders, commonly referred to as "locals," made a splash Friday after staging a walkout boycotting pit-trading options of Eurodollar futures — the most actively traded interest rate product at the exchange.
The protest followed a controversial trade the previous day known was a "block trade" — a privately negotiated order/trade that's performed off site, but cleared by the exchange and then posted on the CME's website minutes later.
We're told by a source that block trades have been going on for years, but because the Eurodollar futures pit is the busiest one at the exchange, they're getting more attention.
While the biggest gripe we heard from a local at the CME is that floor traders are not privy to the information when a block trade happens so they get "blindsided" and can lose a lot of money, not all traders seem to feel sorry for them.
