One of the finest books ever written on open outcry futures trading is being released in the US as of September 2009 and I highly recommend anyone with an interest in financial history, particularly the evolution of futures trading, to buy a copy of Day One Trader by John Sussex. It is very well written and certainly the finest trading floor book since Charlie D. was published in 1997. The book recounts the experience of one pit trader who was on the LIFFE floor beginning on the first day in 1982 and continues to the present, most interestingly with the indepth story of the transition from the trading pit to electronic trading, which Sussex participated in as a LIFFE director and owner of a dominant floor brokerage.
In the below video, some vintage footage of the LIFFE trading floor is shown as Sussex discusses the book.