CME Faces Third Case of Coronavirus on Chicago’s Trading Floor

(Bloomberg) -- CME Group Inc. reported a third case of Covid-19 on its trading floor in Chicago despite strict safety measures, highlighting the challenges businesses are facing to reopen during the pandemic.

A member of the cleaning staff on the trading floor tested positive for Covid-19, the exchange said in a memo sent to members on Wednesday. The person last accessed the pit Friday and the bourse isn’t aware of anyone coming in close contact with the individual within its facilities.

The third case on the floor, where open-outcry trading in eurodollar options resumed after a nearly five-month shutdown, highlights the hurdles the exchange is facing to prevent the virus from entering its premises. Positive cases came even as the CME has limited access to the floor to members and employees, required the use of face masks and restricted movement in the pit.

“I feel safer on the CME floor than at family parties,” according to Tom Carideo, a market maker at WH Trading in the CME’s eurodollar options pit.

Plastic Shield

Carideo says the CME’s stringent precautions go above and beyond, including a daily email at 5am Chicago time that questions whether members traveled outside of the state or have symptoms of Covid. Answering the survey properly generates an electronic entry pass that must be shown to security to enter the building and then again to a group of nurses after you pass through a fever scanner at the entrance to the trading floor.

“Once I enter the floor, I walk to my booth, put on a plastic shield then walk to my spot in the pit, only then can I take off my mask,” he said.

“If you don’t adhere to the rules, you can be fined upwards of $5,000,” Carideo said, adding there is more security down there than in March. “No one is sneaking around without a mask on. Everyone down there is on the same team,” he said.

To make open outcry style trading more conducive during Covid, the CME built a replica of the eurodollar options pit that is nearly 6 or 7 times the size of the original one, Carideo explained. Traders normally shoulder to shoulder are now 6 feet apart, standing on their assigned dot, he explained.

Now, “I am 35 yards away from someone that I was initially feet away from,” but the new distances have yet to provide any drawbacks, Carideo said.

As for the face shield while working in the pit, “I like them. I wish they would keep them.”

Social Distancing

CME said the trading floor has been disinfected four times since the cleaning staff member was last in the building. “The eurodollar options pit will continue to operate,” according to the memo.

CME reopened the pit for eurodollar options trading on Aug. 10, while the floor remains closed for other products including corn and livestock. The bourse had already warned that social distancing was difficult in open-outcry trading environments and required anyone trading on the floor to sign a waiver accepting the risks of catching the coronavirus.

Members and their employees, plus CME trading floor staff, all undergo a temperature screening when entering the building. While the first two cases, reported at the end of September and early October, didn’t scare dealers away from the pit, they stoked concerns CME might decide to close the pit again.

When questioned whether the bourse would consider closing the floor again, a CME spokeswoman said: “We continue to monitor the circumstances of any confirmed case on our trading floor and will communicate that information to our trading community.”

CME is far from being the only organization grappling with a return to the office. But its pit poses a unique challenge among business-reopening efforts as it involves people negotiating trades by congregating and calling out to each other across a room.

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