Originally posted by AlbertaFarmer5
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Jay Homan was a frikkin legend. It is said that if not for him; electronic trade would have occurred 10 years sooner. I was introduced to him by Scott Early, former legal counsel to the CBOT and at the time with the law firm of Foley & Lardner. Scott was still on a retainer at CBOT and KCBOT. If not for Scott, Jay wouldn't have given me the time of day. We had lunch at the CBOT - but in a location where Jay could see the board and the floor. Here are some news clip...google him for more - he was Trading Places long before the movie ever came out.
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Jay Homan, a veteran CBOT trader and member, said: “It just feels good to be wanted. It presents one with choices.†- said during bidding war between ICE and CME.
Just days after the CBOT introduced side-by-side trading in its storied grain complex, electronic trading of those contracts, as well as in financial and metals futures, was halted by technical problems, triggering electronic shutdowns at exchanges in Kansas City, Minneapolis and Winnipeg on Aug. 4. “We just kept on trading,†says Jay Homan, a market maker in the CBOT oats pit. Traders were able to use the pit open outcry trading platform at the CBOT, Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT) and Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGEX) to execute orders. By offering multiple ways to trade grains, the CBOT has increased security. “We had seamless trade,†Homan says. “Anything mechanical is going to break. It has been a tremendously dependable platform. Those things are going to happen.â€
Jay Homan, a CBOT pit broker in the oats market, knows change is coming, But he says he has no plans to become a screen trader. “Guys like me who’ve been down here for 35 years, it’s been a gift from God. We know the markets are changing,†he said. “We’re probably too old to look for a niche. So we’re going to look for a way to exit gracefully and say ‘thank you.’ There are others who are looking ahead to reinventing themselves, finding ways to fit into the new paradigm.â€
Because the market is having an extraordinary year like most feedgrains, farmers with cash oats are urged to reward the market. Jay Homan, a independent CBOT oats trader, says normally oats are a $1.50 per bushel crop. On Friday, the CBOT Dec '08 futures contract traded at $4.07 ½. At this time last year, CBOT oats traded around $2.56 per bushel. Homan says the corn market could determine the near-term oats price. CHICAGO, Illinois (Agriculture Online)--Because the market is having an extraordinary year like most feedgrains, farmers with cash oats are urged to reward the market.
Nearby is Jay Homan, an oat broker who hasn't missed a day of work in 26 years--hasn't even taken a vacation. Lately, King and Homan have both started using an electronic routing system to receive orders from trading desks. Though neither cares much for the idea of electronic trading, both admit that more people need to use the so-called electronic clerks if they are to stay in business. A few minutes before the opening bell in the grain room, however, the public-address system announces that the electronic router has broken down: "We have converted all of our firms to paper.... The decision has been made to delay trading until 10 A.M." A few people cheer. "
Best one liners at CBOT: Sending a new runner into the oat pit to ask Jay Homan what the Dec oat/meal spread is.
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