On the Chicago Meracntile Exchange, individuals and firms buy and sell contracts for specified amounts of products that are to be delivered at a time period in the future at a price arrived at through openly competitive bidding. The transfer of ownership of these delivery promises takes place in a particular trading pit, for each commodity, on the floor of the Exchange. Trades are officially made by qualified members of the Exchange who act as brokers for their customers. For his services, the broker is paid a nominal round- turn commission fee by the customer. Although each commodity contract carefully describes the particular standards that product must meet in order to be a acceptable for delivery, actually fewer than three percent of the contracts traded are consummated by delivery. For the most part, contract obligations ions art offset, and thereby liquids. before the termination of the delivery month. The trader liquidates his position in the market after analyzing price trends, his timing, and his calculated price objectives. (omitted)