41°52′40″N 87°37′56″W / 41.877821°N 87.632285°W / 41.877821; -87.632285The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), established on April 3, 1848, is one of the world's oldest futures and options exchanges.

The CBOT took shape to provide a centralized location, where buyers and sellers can meet to negotiate and formalize forward contracts.

This Art Deco building incorporates sculptural work by Alvin Meyer and is capped by a 31-foot (9.5 m) tall statue of the Roman goddess Ceres in reference to the exchange's heritage as a commodity market.

Ceres is often claimed to be faceless because its sculptor, John Storrs, believed that the forty-five story building would be sufficiently taller than any other nearby structure and as a result that no one would be able to see the sculpture's face anyway.

Today the Board of Trade Building is closely joined by numerous skyscrapers in the heart of Chicago's busy Loop commercial neighborhood.

The combination of hand-signals and vocal representation between the way a trader expresses bids and offers is a protection against misinterpretation by other market participants.

For historical purposes, an illustrated project to record the hand signal language used in CBOT's trading pits has been compiled and published.