On Monday we went to the Argentina Board of Trade. It was in a very beautiful, old building located in downtown Buenos Aires. One of the very first things we noticed was how little people there was on the floor, as compared to the floors some of us have seen in Chicago. But this trading system does follow the Chicago market, primarliy on Soybean.
They explained to us this was because there is much more online trading starting here and this has caused a decrease in those traders that work from the floor. We also learned the employees iof the board do not participate in any buidding, rather they act as a clearing house and make sure all trades are handled fairly.
It was interesting to know that the main reason for the buyers and sellers to shout and yell at each other in the board of trades was to make sure that no secret side deals are going on. It is kind of a symbolic tradition to still do this. Yelling made sure that everyone in the room knew that there was a deal going on. So that you could see that a trade was being made.
It was also an interesting fact to know that one of the reasons the Board of Trade was small because of the technology factor. Many of the people that would belong at the Board of Trade do not physically show up because they can work from home. It is extremely easy as we learnerd that you can tade and sell from home easier than showing up to the actual Board of Trade.The last ten minutes of trading was really an interesting experience. It was interesting to see how intense the selling and buying was. The buyers and sellers were in an intense battle in the last five minutes to buy or sell futures or options in an attempt to set themselves up for the next day.
The gentlemen that lead us around the board of trade was an amazing person. his broken english was good and our interpretors were excellent. We had an exciting day and we cant wait for another adventure for the class tomorrow.
Tyler Morog
Brandi Murley
