Block Trades Come to Agriculture, Sparking Transparency Concern
Twenty one day-old pigs stand in a trailer prior to transport to a nearby weaning-to-market barn at a farm in Illinois.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
This article is for subscribers only.
Block trading -- when two customers agree outside of open outcry or outside of the electronic trade to transact a deal -- has come to the world of Chicago agriculture trading, and not everyone’s happy about it.
CME Group Inc. data show the exchange cleared four block trades in agricultural futures Monday, the first day when registered participants were allowed to make the transactions. Block trades took place in hog futures, Black Sea wheat and urea fertilizer.