ABSTRACT
On 7 April 2005 the London-based International Petroleum Exchange (IPE), a leading energy derivatives marketplace, closed its Brent and gas oil futures and options pits in order to force the move to electronically mediated trading. With this, open outcry trading disappeared from the City of London, with the exception of the London Metal Exchange. There had been considerable resistance to the introduction of electronic trading at the IPE. This found expression not only in the dismal take-up rate of electronic trading during the run-up to the closure of the pits, when a dual system was in operation, but also in more overt displays, such as walkouts by some traders.
