Chicago Trading Floor Gets Second Act Powering AI-Led Future

Paul R.T. Johnson still remembers the days when thousands of traders piled onto the Chicago Board of Trade’s famous trading floor wearing colorful jackets and shouting orders for everything from corn to interest-rate derivatives.

“You could literally ride up the escalator, and the hair on the back of your neck would stand up, you could feel the energy,” he said.

Now, some 30 years after he pushed for construction of the building with the world’s largest trading floor, Johnson is saying goodbye. The property at 333 South LaSalle Street — shut since the pandemic — is to be turned ...