Open Outcry Traders History Project

Alan Palmer came to the exchange as a 13-year-old and fell in love. He was hired the next summer as a runner on the trading floor. He has traded at the MidAmerican Commodity Exchange, CME and CBOT. Palmer was a bull in the grains and a bear in stocks. In this...

Tony Saliba was interviewed by John Lothian News for the MarketsWiki Education Open Outcry Traders History Project. Saliba is a trader, exchange member and financial industry technology and education executive who is the founder of Saliba Venture Management, LLC....

Paul RT Johnson, Jr. was recently interviewed by John Lothian News for the MarketsWiki Education Open Outcry Traders History Project. Johnson is a Chicago-based former futures broker, exchange member and current chief investment officer at his family office. He was a...

Jeff Bernacchi fell in love with futures trading on a trip to the exchange with his microeconomics class. He also recorded the best results in the class for paper trading. During college he was hired by Heinold Commodities to be a runner. At 21 he lease a membership...

Donnie Roberts came to Chicago after graduating from graduate school with a love of futures and options trading. He chose Chicago over New York and London. He came to the visitor center of the Chicago Board of Trade one day and developed goosebumps while experiencing...

Gary Sagui started his career at Harris Bank in foreign exchange, then moved to New York for a bond trading job at firm that later failed. However, a chance meeting at a cocktail party for the failed firm and Paine Webber, which took over his firm, introduced him to...

Bill Dudley sat for an interview for John Lothian News’ MarketsWiki Education Open Outcry Traders History Project. After a stint in the U.S. Army and a finance degree, Bill Dudley was hired on the bond desk of Merrill Lynch. He was not a trader, but an assistant who...

Jake Morowitz came to the Chicago Board of Trade as a philosophy major and a member of the Students for a Democratic Society. A former professor recruited him to come work in the markets and he was hired as a researcher. He bought his first membership with the help of...

Tom Gould is a former option trader at the Chicago Board Options Exchange. He went on to a brokerage and compliance career. He tells his story about his days trading on the floor of the CBOE to John Lothian News as part of the MarketsWiki Education Open Outcry Traders History Project.

Mike Fishbain is a former open outcry trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Today he is part of the customer support team at Trading Technologies, a leading provider of trading screen technology to the futures and options markets. He sat for an interview with John Lothian News as part of the MarketsWiki Education Open Outcry Traders History Project.

Jordan Melamed is a former trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and a filmmaker. He is the son of CME Chairman Emeritus Leo Melamed. He followed his father’s footsteps to the trading floor of the CME. After a career trading in the open outcry markets he pursued a career as a filmmaker. He is the director of “Futures Past,” a story of the end of open outcry trading and the human element of trading and family.

The first video we are releasing from the Open Outcry Traders History Project is of Leo Melamed. In this video, Leo tells of his start as a law student and runner, how he financed his first membership with help from his father and how many times he went broke. Three. There are lots of great stories from Leo – from how he makes his trading decisions to the impact of his career on his family and what kind of father he was. The Chairman Emeritus of the CME has had a long, history-making career.