30 South Wacker Drive
312-930-1000
www.cme.com

First, pick up “The Merc at Work,” an irreverent introduction to the serious business of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. In twenty colorful pages, the “who, what, when where, how and why” of the Merc is made comprehensible through a Q & A format that displays an engaging sense of humor. You’ll find that the Merc lives up to its PR. On a recent Friday, the foreign currencies and exchange floor looked like nothing so much as a large frat party without beer, if such a thing is imaginable. Runners in yellow jackets gave each other backrubs, frisked each others’ pockets for bid cards, and flung waste paper aside while traders flung themselves around the pit, conducting their business by the time-honored means of “open outcry.”

Well-integrated racially and in the balance between the sexes, the Merc seems to be the most egalitarian of the financial institutions that power Chicago’s Loop. Dressed in cheesy polyester jackets that identify their business on the trading floor, the people of the Merc are consummate Americans: noisy, cheerful, pragmatic, and diverse. The din on the floor is deafening, as traders shout out their wares or desired contracts. Arcane hand signals confirm often inaudible trades, giving a further impression of lunacy to an already chaotic scene. 

If you know what’s going on, you’ll love it. If you don’t, the Merc gives you ample opportunity to find out, with their publications and an energetic, straightforward, if somewhat dated infotainment film and didactic panel. They may be too busy to pay much attention to these amenities: the dollar value of contracts traded on an average day “exceeds $712 billion,” a whimsical, if staggering sum. A ton of paper is recycled daily. All the exchanges tout themselves as being the biggest, most, richest, or fastest something; the Merc really seems to justify their claim to superlatives.

The Merc’s viewing galleries are open at different and peculiar times; call for a complete schedule.