From 1966 to 2013, this building housed the Kansas City Board of Trade, where the world price of wheat was determined as supply and demand met in its trading pit and traders shouted orders to buy or sell futures contracts for owners and buyers of winter wheat. The Kansas City Board of Trade began in 1857 as a cash grain market and was the forerunner of the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. First located in the River Market area, it later moved to 1327 West 10th Street and then to 4800 Main in 1966. In the 1890s, futures trading began to provide price protection through a bidding agreement for farmers, elevators, millers, bakers, and later exporters, while speculator trades seeking quick profits also provided market liquidity. The volume of cash and futures trading greatly increased after World War II as U.S. farmers began to feed the world. In its early years, the Kansas City Board of Trade set grain standards and trading rules and tested scales to insure fair trades. Futures trading eventually came under federal laws and regulation. In the 1980s, the first stock index futures contract was developed and traded here. As large exchanges elsewhere offered other stock index futures contracts, trading here eventually ceased. By 2013, the Kansas City Board of Trade was sold to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, memberships that first traded for $20 sold for $625,000, and trading relocated to computerized markets in Chicago.
