Sort & Cull

We can now all breathe a sigh of relief. The first round of reduced Globex trading hours has come and gone without causing the greater market to become significantly unhinged.

As far as I can tell, the CME's prudent decision to aggressively prune the 24-hour trading model has been largely met with calm and equanimity. There's been no panic behavior by Pacific Rim day-traders, no flight to safety by global night owls, no massive liquidation by vampires with sunglasses.

Given the price action evident Tuesday morning in both electronic and pit trading, it would appear that the trading community has quickly adjusted to the new schedule. In other words, volatility continues to chop along pretty much as we've seen it through this amazing roller-coaster-of-a-year.

When the Globex was first introduced in 1992 as the first global electronic futures trading platform, it aspired to reflect the reality of worldwide trading, a fast and furious commodity exchange unrestricted by time zones or national boundaries. Many cheered this new chapter in market access, confident that it went hand-in-glove with the burgeoning forces of globalization and foreign demand for U.S. meat.

But at the risk of sounding like a cranky Luddite, I always thought the idea of 24-hour trading was altogether silly and unnecessary, if not crazy and borderline dangerous. Is market efficiency better served by instantaneity or deliberation?

I guess you could ask the same question about the painfully constant grind of cable news. Talking heads on countless channels never shut up, frantically filling all but dead air with piecemeal facts, on-the-fly opinions, and endless scripts of repetition.

What ever happened to fact-checking, thoughtful analysis, and measured reactions?

Whether you're talking markets or news coverage, the wide-open model makes me think of what my dad used to say when I objected to my 12 o'clock curfew: "Son, if you can't get into enough trouble by midnight, you're not really trying."

For more of John's commentary, visit http://feelofthemarket.com/…

(AG)

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