CBOE Origin Remembrances: Ed Tilly

By Lawrence G. McMillan

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.

Q: Ed, how did you get started in options in the first place?

Right out of college, I was considering several different options, but ultimately pursued an open stock clerk position with Steve Fossett’s¹ trading business. I thought it would be a terrific opportunity to learn the business from the ground up. I took it and started on the CBOE floor in 1987, taking stock orders from market-makers and phoning them over to Fossett’s stock desk.

Fossett had always been an early pioneer in trading technology. He had one of the first DOT machines (Direct Order Transfer) that would send orders from CBOE to NYSE. I was working for Tom Asher, who would later become a Vice Chairman of the exchange and also serve on CBOE’s Board of Directors...

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