Kansas City Board of Trade

Kansas City Board of Trade. . From 1966 to 2013 this building was home of the Kansas City Board of Trade. Here the world price of wheat was determined as supply and demand met in its trading pit. Traders shouted orders to buy or sell futures contracts for the owners and buyers of winter wheat. , The Kansas City Board of Trade began in 1857 as a cash grain market and was the forerunner of the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. First located in the River Market area, it later moved to 1327 West 10th Street, and moved here at 4800 Main in 1966. , In the 1890s, trading of futures contracts began to provide price protection through a bidding agreement for farmers, elevators, millers, bakers and later, exporters. Attempting to make quick profits, speculator trades also provided market liquidity. , The volume of cash and futures greatly increased after World War II as U.S. farmers began to feed the world. In the early years the Kansas City Board of Trade set grain standards and trading rules, and tested scales, all to insure fair trades. Futures trading eventually came under Federal laws and regulation. , In the 1980s the first stock index futures contract was developed and traded here. As large exchanges elsewhere offered other stock index futures contracts, trading here eventually ceased. Today, thousands of similar stock index futures contracts are traded daily worth several millions of dollars. , Hundreds of distinguished citizens were members. Memberships first traded for $20, then sold for $625,000 when in 2013 the Kansas City Board of Trade was sold to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Trading relocated to Chicago, which by then was computerized. , Be quiet and listen for echoes of traders shouting orders in the pit. Though gone, their spirits linger on, as does the legacy of free markets.