Ivers Riley

By Lawrence G. McMillan

Ivers Riley, a long-term friend and business associate, died February 17th at his home in Savannah, Georgia. I met Ivers in the early 1980's when he was a cofounder of The Options Group – a consulting firm specializing in all the “new” forms of options that existed at that time (currency options and index futures, primarily, as I recall).

Ivers was the CEO and/or Chairman of several option exchanges over the years – The American Stock Exchange, the New York Stock Exchange (yes, the NYSE had listed options in the 1980's), the second Chairman of the International Securities Exchange (ISE, 2002-2006) and Chairman of both the Hong Kong Futures Exchange and the HKFE Clearing Corp (1994-2000).

As Chairman of the ISE, he was instrumental in promoting electronic option trading – furthering the work of David Krell, the previous Chairman.

Clearly he was vital to the development of the options markets in the early days. He was also instrumental in bringing several new products to market. His first accomplishment in that regard was getting approval for listing puts on equities. Puts began trading in 1976.

Later, Ivers was the driving force behind the invention and development of SPY, which may have been the first ETF (exchange traded Fund).

Ivers was named to the Futures Hall of Fame and also received the prestigious Joe Sullivan Award in 2005. When I received the same Award in 2011, Ivers was there. He told me he made the trip just to see me receive the award. He was that kind of guy – always friendly and also supportive of his friends.

Barron’s described Ivers this way: “Riley’s experience was so deep that he understood how trading would evolve years before others.”

Originally published in The Option Strategist Newsletter Volume 24, No. 4. Introductory 3 month trial subscriptions are available for only $29.