Buck Haworth has been a consultant, a CPA, a back office accountant, an exchange audit department executive, a foreign exchange arbitrage desk manager, an exchange member, a scalper, a spreader, an exchange board member and officer, and a technology executive.
He sat down with John Lothian News for an interview for the MarketsWiki Education Open Outcry Traders History Project. He talked to us about starting as an accountant at a big national firm but not being happy with his career trek. His father always loved the stock market, so he turned his attention to the markets. He rejected an opportunity to start at the CBOE with a job for a mere $300 a month, as he had a mortgage and three kids at home.
Instead, he eventually joined trader Ralph Peter in a back office role. After long hours and many projects, he left and joined the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to help build out a professional audit unit. He eventually left the CME to take a job running an FX arbitrage operation, where he got his first taste of the trading floor.
Haworth talked to us about his experiences trading, his role with the board of directors, and the demutualization and inside politics of the CME board. He gives a clear and simple explanation about the realities of the trading floor and why you had to deal with that reality.
This is part one of a two-part interview not to miss.
Produced by Mike Forrester