When the opening bell sounds at the stock and commodities exchanges around the country tomorrow morning, the traders will be buying and selling the usual products -- crude oil, gold, Treasuries, the S&P 500 index. Off the floor, after the close, they'll also be shorting Duke, going long on Kansas, buying back Pitt, and dumping Alabama. When March Madness begins, Longhorns are just another kind of cattle future.

While millions of Americans will be tossing a few dollars into pick-the-winner office pools on the NCAA men's basketball tournament, the traders will be playing a far more sophisticated game with much more intensity for geometrically higher stakes.