CBOE Origin Remembrances: Ed Kelly

By Lawrence G. McMillan

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.”
 

Bob Barr and I were employed by Ralph W. Davis (RWD) a floor broker at the Midwest Stock Exchange, and the firm asked the two of us to start a floor operation on the CBOE. RWD bought two CBOE seats prior to opening day. Ralph was planning to spend more time at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBT) trading grain, so we ran the CBOE operation from day one.

My only experience with options prior to the CBOE had been when a customer had wanted to trade some puts and calls, over-the-counter. I didn’t know what they were at the time, but found a book published by Filer Schmidt, one of the put and call brokers in New York. That was my first experience with options.

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