1.   No critical shortages or gluts livened things up this year for traders in the futures pits at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

2.   At the Chicago Board of Trade, brokers and traders reported brisk business in the Treasury futures pit.

3.   Initially, queries on an electronic bulletin board will replace screaming traders in a futures pit.

4.   That spread into the soybean futures pit.

5.   Trading in the bond futures pit at the Chicago Board of Trade was slower than usual today, said Paul Johnson, a trader for ING Futures and Options.

6.   Traders in the stock index futures pit at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange said there was no frenzy to the selling.