David Krell was the Chairman and co-founder of the first U.S. electronic options exchange – the International Securities Exchange (ISE). I spoke with him recently, to get his perspective on what proved to be a very important development in option trading.
Thomas Peterffy is well-know for founding the computerized trading firm Timber Hill and also for founding Interactive Brokers. Thomas recently was the Keynote Speaker at the May 2023 SIFMA meeting to commemorate the 50th anniversary of listed option trading. SIFMA is the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association; it was formed from the merger of the Bond Market Association and the Securities Industry Association, in 2006. This is a copy of the speech that Thomas gave, about 50 years of listed option trading, through his personal experiences.
I have known Paul Stevens since the 1970’s. He has had a long a successful career in the options arena. Paul (an English major in college) was kind enough to write up some memories, and then we talked for a while, adding in more of his experiences.
Shelly Natenberg is best-known as author of the book, Option Volatility and Pricing. He is respected as both a trader and an educator in the option business.
Bill Brodsky was the CEO and Chairman of the CBOE from 1997 to 2013 and continued on as Chairman until 2017. Bill was involved in the listed option markets from the beginning and was instrumental in bringing the CBOE through many of its most important advances, including electronic trading and overseeing the company go public.
Ed Tilly is the current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CBOE Global Markets, after having taken over from Bill Brodsky as CEO in 2013 and Chairman in 2017. Ed began his career as a stock clerk on the CBOE trading floor in 1987, then became a member as a market-maker in 1989, before electing to move into CBOE’s “front office” full time in 2006. I spoke with Ed recently to get some of his thoughts on his career at CBOE.
Ed Kelly was one of the original floor brokers on the CBOE from Day One. He served on many important committees and was a stalwart at the Exchange. Joe Doherty – whose own recollections are posted elsewhere on this website – had this to say about Ed: “ He was the consummate professional from the moment he stepped on the floor. I very much liked his appreciation of what the early CBOE was, his recognition of what it could become, and his willingness to work with that long term potential in mind. This at a time when many of his contemporaries, in the early days, viewed the trading floor as a candy store from which they should grab as many sweets as fast as they could.”
Jim Dalton was the first Marketing Director of the CBOE, and he was hired by Joe Sullivan to put together the marketing team for the exchange. As Joe Sullivan wrote in his recounting of the era (be sure to read that recount as well), “Jim Dalton...built the best marketing team assembled at any exchange in that era if not ever.”
I would highly encourage anyone who is going to read this article of Joe Doherty’s recollections, to first read the article by Joe Sullivan. Joe Doherty was extremely instrumental in the creation of the CBOE, for he worked right along with Joe Sullivan as the process inched forward for four years before the exchange was born. These are some recollections that Joe D has of those years and the ones that immediately followed.
