Morning Edition

The trading pits at the Chicago Board of Trade and the Mercantile Exchange have long been potent symbols of American capitalism. And they used to be as rough and tumble as the city itself, where burly men bought and sold commodities like hogs, cattle, corn and soybeans.

Trading volume has gone up considerably in recent years, but Chicago's trading pits are tamer places today — the result of a revolution futures trading has undergone over the past quarter century. Much of the trading has left the pits and gone electronic.

By now, everyone's heard of Kickstarter, the website that lets people with an idea or project ask other people to contribute toward realizing it. It's called crowd funding, and this summer's big success story was musician Amanda Palmer. She raised more than $1 million to produce her new album. But crowd funding doesn't work for every musician every time.

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm David Greene. Sandy Crocker has gone more than 500 miles for love. The Canadian man was touring in Ireland when he met a freckled woman with reddish brown hair. They spoke for a couple minutes at a café, then she left. Back in Canada, he was heartbroken.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I'M GONNA BE (500 MILES)")

THE PROCLAIMERS: (Singing) But I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more...