The futures industry, despite its name, was long viewed as a somewhat backward relation of the stockmarkets. The caricature was of a rough-and-tumble place where bulky men with loud voices—the sorts who hailed from Essex or the south side of Chicago—made bets on the prospective price of crude oil and pork bellies. These days, however, "futures" is a more fitting description. The trillions of dollars zapping through the markets are usually moved electronically, allowing traders to hedge investments in everything from shifts in the currency to turns in the weather. More diverse, creative and lucrative than equities, this arcane activity has now attracted the interest of the world's biggest investors.
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