Commodity futures trading has its roots way back in 17^th century Japan where tickets were sold for rice stored in warehouses. The Chicago Board of Trade was first established in the late 19^th century followed by numerous other commodity futures exchanges all over the United States. There are now ten commodity futures exchanges in the United States, each of them dealing with different commodity types. 

Today, commodity futures trading exchanges are found in twenty countries worldwide, with some of them for commodities that are native in their countries. The futures market became popular in the 1970s when currency futures were introduced in the U.S. Later, futures for instruments such as T-bonds and Treasury Bills were also traded.

Transactions for commodity futures are conducted electronically or in a trading pit where pit traders shout out their bid and ask prices to other traders. Hand signals are used to denote prices and quantities. Also, all actions while in the pit are recorded and trades are executed once a price is agreed upon between traders. Details of these transactions are then processed by the exchange and prices are electronically transmitted to the system to be disseminated across the world.

While pit trading is still implemented today, the liquidity of the commodity futures market has increased due to the entry of retail traders into the market. With the advent of the Internet and the computer, traders are no longer required to call brokers to place trade orders. Instead, brokers provide their customers with web based applications that can be used to view real-time prices and also to place trades online directly with the exchange. Of course, the exchange transmits a copy of all trades to their respective brokers.

The introduction of the Internet has changed the way the market behaves. Now, there is added liquidity as the number of traders in the exchange has increased. This means that it is easier to buy and sell contracts as there are larger numbers of buyers and sellers in the market. Indeed, a trader can reside anywhere in the world and still place an order at the exchange. Apart from that, day trading commodity futures may only be limited to pit traders and professionals. Today, day trading is common and most traders opt to use this approach to make daily profits from the commodity futures market.

As globalization occurs, awareness of commodity futures trading as a viable tool to earn a living has enticed many to venture into day trading. This is probably unheard of a hundred years ago when there were only a limited few brokers exchanging bid and ask prices in the pit. As more people turn towards operating a home based small business, commodity futures trading is probably one of their considerations. In the end, conventional traders would need to alter their strategies in light of the many technological enhancements that have altered the landscape of commodity futures trading.