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CBOT leadership

faces more votes

CHICAGO: The Chicago Board of Trade CBOT is bracing for more ballots as dissatisfied members vote Tuesday to challenge the exchange leadership on the design of a new trading facility.

At the urging of members who signed a petition, the CBOT will vote on the plan for a new trading floor, part of a $182 million building the exchange hopes to open in February 1997.

On Tuesday members voted to adopt term limits for CBOT elected officials, but rejected a proposal which would have kept chairman Patrick Arbor from running for a third term.

In September the CBOT will vote on the approval process for contracts listed on "Project A," an electronic after-hours trading system. The proposal calls for a two-thirds majority vote in order to list agricultural contracts on Project A, instead of a simple majority now required.

CBOT members say there may be other ballots coming up in the future, including one on changing the appointment of public directors, and one on whether broker groups should be allowed at the CBOT.

CBOT chairman Arbor, in a news conference Friday, said such contention threatened the exchange's future.

"Ours is an increasingly competitive global environment. We cannot endure management by plebiscite on every single issue and still expect to vie and compete with other competitors for worldwide market share," Arbor said.

Antagonism over the new floor plan has been tied to local traders' dissatisfaction about the steepness of tiering of brokers' booths overlooking the new Treasury bond futures pit.

"I apologize for what may seem like an arcane and a petty issue," Arbor told reporters seeking to understand the furor over the new floor plan, adding, "But nonetheless, it is a very critical issue for the future of the Board of Trade."

Some CBOT members complain that a subcommittee of mostly financial futures traders, charged with designing the new floor, was overruled by a narrow vote on the CBOT board. The Board includes directors who are not traders, such as Illinois Governor Jim Thompson, and two university professors.

The proposal up for vote Tuesday calls for a rule that no floor booth be higher than the top step of the trading pit unless it is 35 feet away. If passed that proposal would mean changing a plan already approved by the CBOT board.

A total 52 locals and brokers signed a letter detailing the floor plan and urging members to vote for the proposal.-Reuter