CHICAGO, Illinois (Agriculture Online)--Until Monday, Girard "Bud" Spratt has been coming to the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade since 1956.

Along with meeting his wife of 45 years here, and seeing trades come to the floor via the Western Union, Spratt says he has fond memories of the world's agricultural commodities trading center.

Spratt encourages farmers to scale in and out of the market. "Selling 20% of your crop, then waiting to see if the market goes higher and sell another 20%," Spratt says. "At the same time, when the market is breaking, don't think the markets are always going to come back. You should continue to sell, continue to scale out of positions."

Spratt says the nature of the markets have changed dramatically since he started over 40 years ago.

After holding various positions, Spratt finished his long CBOT career last Friday as Director of Trading Operations for Penson GH Co.

CHICAGO, Illinois (Agriculture Online)--Until Monday, Girard "Bud" Spratt has been coming to the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade since 1956.