Computer love

Competition works wonders. Pundits bang on for years about how electronic trading will win out in Chicago, then along come Eurex and Liffe and, hey presto, serious volume starts to shift on screen. This, of course, is an over-simplification. CBoT and CME executives are, to varying extents, reluctant to ascribe any of the changes at their exchanges to the threat from Europe. While one can understand their desire not to come across as purely reactive...