The University of Houston has an open outcry competition for students which has been running for about a decade it seems. The CME sponsors it but I believe it's a legacy program which was originally associated with NYMEX. On the trading floor, the summer used to be filled with interns who were home from university and I never understood how they could go back to school at the end of the summer with how fun, stimulating and exciting the floor was to work on. I saw the trading pits after graduating high school early and immediately canceled the plans I had to go to school that fall without even securing a job on the floor.
On a similar note, I do wonder if open outcry trading will go the way of Civil War Reenactments where a group of enthusiasts in the future gather to geek out and relive the old way. Ahh that reminds me that I have to do more work on the trading handsignals book and although the yearend deadline looks intact, it's still a slow go.
