A group of grain traders can proceed with a lawsuit to overturn new price-settlement rules at CME Group, a judge in Chicago ruled on Monday. Cook County Circuit Court Judge Lee Preston denied a motion from CME, owner of the Chicago Board of Trade, to dismiss the lawsuit. The traders, who work in the open-outcry pits of the Chicago Board of Trade's historic agricultural trading floor, sued CME in June to halt end-of-day settlement rules that factor in transactions executed electronically, where most of the volume takes place. Prior to the change, CME had a century-old tradition of settling futures prices for crops like corn and soybeans based on transactions executed in the pits. The lawsuit represents the last stand for traders on the floor, who traditionally did much of their business at the close of trading and say that the new procedures threaten to make the pits irrelevant. Floor traders have seen business dwindle during the past five years as a
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