[politicalwit]

Thanks for the lesson!!

[SAJ]

There is no reason on this planet, btw, why futures exchanges, CME, CBT, NYBOT/ICE, NYMEX, cannot standardise their sessions, regarding openings, closings and whatnot else. If they need to stagger by mkt (as NYBOT still does, a practice that started when the 9/11 attacks wiped out their main trading floor in the World Trade Center), fine -- just so it's on some organised basis.

No reason, that is, except native stubbornness, tradition (the CBT trading hours go back for decades, perhaps even a century), and the attitude of ''not invented here''.

Believe me, you are hardly the first to have been a bit confused by the current situation on openings/closings/names of sessions/etc., for which the only proper adjective is ''goofy''. You ought to see the confusion among brand-new broker trainees -- now THIS is the definition of ''Chinese fire drill' !