While Chicago Board of Trade directors have indefinitely postponed a vote on the exchange's future, many traders have made up their minds. They see more value in marrying the girl next door.

Merger rivals Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (CME) and Atlanta's Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) are both wooing CBOT shareholders with promises of cash, stock and long-term value. But while ICE has made the sweeter bid -- nearly $1 billion sweeter -- no one understands future value like futures traders.

"The Merc has a better future strategy," said Michael Hill, a CBOT seat owner. "Looking at the long-term, two years down the road, the Merc is a better bet. However, in the short-term money talks."

ICE's all stock bid, valued at $9.9 billion when it was initially submitted March 15, eclipsed CME's original bid of $8 billion. But today's share prices are not the concern of seat holders, who must keep their shares in order to maintain their membership privileges.

"To get certain breaks on trading, you have to own stock," CBOT seat holder Francis Wisnieski said. "We are probably never going to sell BOT stock, and I imagine that nearly half the seat owners are in the same boat. So an extra $10 (per share) on the ICE's bid will not benefit us that much."

Numerous traders noted the close ties that already exist between CME and CBOT.

"The Board of Trade and the Merc are so close already that ICE will have to really blow them away," CBOT seat holder Kent Spellman said, noting that cross marketing and margin breaks encourage traders on one exchange to trade on the other.

Some Chicago traders are more comfortable with open-outcry markets than the ICE's electronic-based platform. CBOT traders are also familiar with the Merc's reliable servers and trading platform.

Perhaps most importantly, the Merc is just around the corner.

"I think people would rather the Merc get it because it's a local company," said a CBOT clerk, who asked that his name not be used.

Even traders who lease their seats at CBOT feel the Merc is a better fit.

"It would be better if the Merc bought it -- they seem to have run (the Merc) like a business, and I think they could do a pretty good job with us," CBOT trader John Wisockur said.

The Merc's buyout is not without its critics. The Futures Industry Association, the Washington, D.C.-based national trade organization for the futures industry, is concerned the merger would "substantially lessen competition among U.S. futures exchanges and raise even higher the barriers to entry for new competitors," according to a statement regarding the CBOT-CME merger.

The association declined to comment on the ICE proposal.

While the debate continues upstairs, traders on the CBOT floor like Wisockur admitted that, in the end, either partner will do.

"Unless they tell me they're kicking me off the floor, then whoever buys it buys it," Wisockur said.