At a cocktail party and dinner buffet at the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in Chicago's Little Italy neighborhood, the Philadelphia Board of Trade (PBOT), which is under the auspices of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange (PHLX), celebrated its products. It was a gorgeous Chicago evening, and the view from the terrace of the Hall of Fame was spectacular.

But in between hearing about the quick growth of the PHLX World Currency Options that hit records that day (open interest hit 239,903), and talk about about its smaller sister, the retail-oriented FX futures at the PBOT, which recently named IKON Global Markets as a market maker and Fortis Clearing Americas as the first clearing member, a few former bond floor brokers lamented the death of the floor. When asked what has changed, other than their move to management at prospective banks, they said market moves have "extended," because "there's no one to stand in front of the hedge funds." They said that it wasn't that trends were changing, it's just that a market could move 10% more in one direction just because it had to slow down pretty much by itself, like a train with no brakes. They added that hedge funds move all in the same direction. And with the move to electronic, they didn't see that change anytime soon.