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204 Caitlin Zaloomrecently, the logic of the trading nexus has been unchallenged. Changes to thepit technology have focused on the delivery of information to the pit and thedistribution of commodity prices that are made there. From chalkboards andtelegraphs to telephone, digital order books, and electronic screens, informationtechnology has been used to augment the trading nexus.FROM NEXUS TO NETWORKAfter a century and a half of dominance, the pit is now giving way to onlineforms of trading. Digital markets are obviating the CBOT nexus by establishingelectronic networks that stretch over the globe. This new market form linksdispersed traders into a unified, but decentralized, market. This is not,however, a simple reproduction or rationalization of the marketplace. Thesedigital platforms create new orientations to space and time that define themarket environment and the information available to traders. Where the tradingpit was designed to unify the market in space and time, electronic futurestrading creates a technological network of traders that share time but neitherspace nor relationships. 12 These network technologies reconfigure the spatialand temporal relationships of the trader to the market, and, in turn, reshapetheir strategies for information gathering.SpaceElectronic technologies create a global scale for the marketplace. Instead of anexus form, where information and traders converge in a central location,connections between traders are stretched into globe-spanning networks. In1999, the CBOT and its partner, the German-Swiss exchange Eurex, launcheda common trading platform on which any member of either exchange couldtrade the other’s products. The exchanges distributed the new screens widelywith particular concentrations in Chicago, London, and Frankfurt. A centralserver located in Chicago for American Treasury futures and Frankfurt forGerman Treasury futures matches trades and redistributes the profit and lossinformation to the traders’ desks around the world.The new electronic network reorganizes space and time in two importantways. First, the electronic network separates physical and social space. Therationale for creating electronic markets was built on the logic of efficiency.For clients of the exchanges, traders and their social networks are seen as apotentially costly impediment between the clients’ strategies and the market.The technological possibility of more direct contact with the market drivesmanagers and designers to create new technological platforms. 13 These platformsboth unify and spread access to the market. The trading screen dissolves