By MONICA DAVEY JULY 30, When the Chicago Mercantile Exchange announced the other day that pork belly futures would no longer be traded, it was hardly a shock.

Commodities: Pork Bellies

Trades had shrunk to almost nothing. Volatility was too much. The frozen bellies, used to make bacon, were, in the view of some, losing relevance. Still, the demise of the futures means something else is really gone now, too — a unique belly culture and its hard-charging, daring cast of characters who, decades ago, made their fortunes in the high pressure of the belly pit. There was the analyst who died right there.

And there was the veteran trader who once told Mr. Wilhelmi — who was, at the time, trying to analyze a trading report on pork bellies — not to bother.

View all New York Times newsletters. Pork bellies have long held a puzzling mystique to the public. Experts in the field offer a range of sometimes conflicting explanations: To hear many who frequented the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in the early s tell it, the trading of pork belly futures seemed to open up a whole new set of possibilities — other livestock, for instance — for the exchange.

Way back, pork belly futures made pork belly stock market. The bellies were frozen and set aside, then used to make bacon during the finance invest stock market beginners philippines when the demand for it think bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches rose.

Commodities: Pork Bellies

But the pork belly landscape has shifted, said Shane Ellis, a hurricane sandy stock market economist at Iowa State University. With bacon accompanying saladshamburgers, even chocolate, it is on call all year now, removing some of the demand for frozen bellies. For many here, the announcement by the Chicago Pork belly stock market Exchange in July that no further such trades would be made was merely acknowledging the inevitable.

Futures:Pork Bellies Futures

Some said it was high time. Past time, in the view of some, who had worried that the ups and downs of trading were too risky when almost no trades at all were being made. It was hard to imagine next to the memories of the old belly pit, where you had to really watch out, Mr. A version of this article appears in print on July 31,on Page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Trade in Pork Bellies Comes to an End, but the Lore Lives.

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