For the privileged few who own seats on a stock or derivatives exchange, the opportunities abound. If NASA's Mission Control were run by the boys from Animal House, it would look a lot like the Chicago Board Options Exchange. The word seat' is actually an irony, because when you finally sit down to sign the contract, it's probably the last time you're off your feet.
Futures exchanges are a little like airlines.
Everybody wants one as a matter of national pride, even if nobody knows how to run it or wants to use it. An exchange floor is a crucible of ideas, markets, events. Eventually ideas sprout from that for improving a market or for whole new markets. Without ideas and the interchange of ideas, you're never going to get an innovative process to work. As night follows day, exchanges have to merge.