Why on earth trade pit contracts? ran out of things to trade?
There are so many advantages to trading electronic contracts, I seriously can't think of a single reason to trade the pits.
If there were a commodity that had side to side trading with equal liquidity I would of course prefer the electronic. Hopefully the exchanges are progressing toward electronic platforms.
But, I find opportunities in some of the pit contracts, meats, cotton, oj (though that is a thinner one.)
1. Commodities as a class have more favorable leverage than stocks.
2. If one considers both pit and electronic markets one has a greater opportunity to find a setup that one likes.
It is reminiscent of Woody Allen's line about the advantage AC/DC people have:
"It doubles your chance of a date on Saturday night"