Leo Melamed | |
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 Melamed at the Prime Minister's Official Residence on July 1, 2014 | |
| Born | March 20, 1932 (age 91) |
| Occupation(s) | Chairman, Chicago Mercantile Exchange; lawyer; author |
Leo Melamed (born March 20, 1932) is an American attorney, finance executive, and a pioneer of financial futures. He is the chairman emeritus of CME Group (formerly the Chicago Mercantile Exchange). [1]
Melamed was born Leibel Melamdovich in 1932 in Bialystok, Poland into a Jewish family, [2] to two school teachers, Fayga (Barakin) Melamdovich and Isaac Melamdovich (a mathematics teacher). [3] In 1939, following Germany's invasion of Poland and with the outbreak of World War II, his family fled to Lithuania to avoid capture by the Nazis. [4] In 1940, the Japanese consul general to Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara, issued his family a life-saving transit visa, and they made the long trek across Siberia to safe haven in Tsuruga, Japan. [5] They crossed the Pacific to the United States in the spring of 1941, and the family settled in Chicago. [6]
Melamed married Betty Sattler on December 26, 1953. The couple has three children: Idelle Sharon, Jordan Norman and David Jeffrey.
Melamed is an avid contract bridge competitor and often pairs with his wife, Betty. [7]
Melamed's personal life and his strained relationship with his son are the subjects of the 2012 documentary Futures Past, written and directed by his son, Jordan Melamed.
Melamed received his undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois in 1952 and his law degree from John Marshall Law School in 1955. He became involved in futures trading by accident. While in law school, he was looking for a law clerk job and answered a want ad from a firm looking for a "runner", thinking the firm, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Beane, with that many names could be nothing but an established law firm that would be looking for a clerk to "run" to court. Instead, he worked as a runner in the produce futures markets of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange while in law school and learned about the business. He practiced law until 1965 and was elected to the CME board in 1967. [8]
Melamed became chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in 1969. In 1972, under his leadership, the CME created the International Monetary Market (IMM), the world's first financial futures exchange, and launched currency futures. In the years that followed, Melamed led the CME and IMM in the creation of a number of financial instruments, including futures on US Treasury bills in 1976, Eurodollars in 1981, and stock index futures in 1982. [3]
In 1987, Melamed spearheaded the creation and introduction of Globex, the world's first electronic trading system, and became its founding chairman.
In 1991, he founded his own consulting firm, Melamed & Associates, of which he is chairman and chief executive officer. He used to be a member of the global markets advisory committee of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) [9] and has served as a special advisor on futures markets to governments worldwide. Melamed serves on the prestigious Chinese International Advisory Council of Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).
Throughout the next three decades and into the 21st century, Melamed held many CME titles including: Special Counsel to the Board, Chairman of the Executive Committee, and Senior Policy Advisor, but remained the acknowledged leader of the CME. In 2002, he led the CME membership to become the first U.S. financial exchange to go public.
In 2014, he was a board member of CME Group and chairman of its Strategic Steering Committee. [10]
Twenty years after their inception, Nobel Laureate in Economics, Merton Miller, named financial futures "the most significant innovation of the past two decades". At the close of 1999, the former editor of the Chicago Tribune named Melamed "among the ten most important Chicagoans in business of the 20th Century".
He was named a Lincoln Laureate in 2016 in the area of Business, Industry & Communications. [11]
Melamed has lectured and written extensively on the markets. His published works include: [12]
Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd Class, Gold and Silver Star (2017)The International Monetary Market (IMM), a related exchange created within the old Chicago Mercantile Exchange and largely the creation of Leo Melamed, was one of four divisions of the CME Group (CME), the largest futures exchange in the United States, for the trading of futures contracts and options on futures. The IMM was started in December 1971, foreign exchange futures was started on May 16, 1972, and the IMM was merged into the CME in 1986. Two of the more prevalent contracts traded are currency futures and interest rate futures, specifically, 3-month Eurodollar time deposits and 90-day U.S. Treasury bills. The other two CME divisions includes the Index and Option Market (IOM) and Growth and Emerging Markets (GEM). All products fall under one of these three divisions.
In finance, a futures contract is a standardized legal contract to buy or sell something at a predetermined price for delivery at a specified time in the future, between parties not yet known to each other. The asset transacted is usually a commodity or financial instrument. The predetermined price of the contract is known as the forward price. The specified time in the future when delivery and payment occur is known as the delivery date. Because it derives its value from the value of the underlying asset, a futures contract is a derivative.
A futures exchange or futures market is a central financial exchange where people can trade standardized futures contracts defined by the exchange. Futures contracts are derivatives contracts to buy or sell specific quantities of a commodity or financial instrument at a specified price with delivery set at a specified time in the future. Futures exchanges provide physical or electronic trading venues, details of standardized contracts, market and price data, clearing houses, exchange self-regulations, margin mechanisms, settlement procedures, delivery times, delivery procedures and other services to foster trading in futures contracts. Futures exchanges can be organized as non-profit member-owned organizations or as for-profit organizations. Futures exchanges can be integrated under the same brand name or organization with other types of exchanges, such as stock markets, options markets, and bond markets. Non-profit member-owned futures exchanges benefit their members, who earn commissions and revenue acting as brokers or market makers. For-profit futures exchanges earn most of their revenue from trading and clearing fees.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is a global derivatives marketplace based in Chicago and located at 20 S. Wacker Drive. The CME was founded in 1898 as the Chicago Butter and Egg Board, an agricultural commodities exchange. For most of its history, the exchange was in the then common form of a non-profit organization, owned by members of the exchange. The Merc demutualized in November 2000, went public in December 2002, and merged with the Chicago Board of Trade in July 2007 to become a designated contract market of the CME Group Inc., which operates both markets. The chairman and chief executive officer of CME Group is Terrence A. Duffy, Bryan Durkin is president. On August 18, 2008, shareholders approved a merger with the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and COMEX. CME, CBOT, NYMEX, and COMEX are now markets owned by CME Group. After the merger, the value of the CME quadrupled in a two-year span, with a market cap of over $25 billion.
The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), established on April 3, 1848, is one of the world's oldest futures and options exchanges. On July 12, 2007, the CBOT merged with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) to form CME Group. CBOT and three other exchanges now operate as designated contract markets (DCM) of the CME Group.
A currency future, also known as an FX future or a foreign exchange future, is a futures contract to exchange one currency for another at a specified date in the future at a price that is fixed on the purchase date; see Foreign exchange derivative. Typically, one of the currencies is the US dollar. The price of a future is then in terms of US dollars per unit of other currency. This can be different from the standard way of quoting in the spot foreign exchange markets. The trade unit of each contract is then a certain amount of other currency, for instance €125,000. Most contracts have physical delivery, so for those held at the end of the last trading day, actual payments are made in each currency. However, most contracts are closed out before that. Investors can close out the contract at any time prior to the contract's delivery date.
An interest rate future is a financial derivative with an interest-bearing instrument as the underlying asset. It is a particular type of interest rate derivative.
CME Group Inc., headquartered in Chicago, operates financial derivatives exchanges including the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Chicago Board of Trade, New York Mercantile Exchange, and The Commodity Exchange. The company also owns 27% of S&P Dow Jones Indices. It is the world's largest operator of financial derivatives exchanges. Its exchanges are platforms for trading in agricultural products, currencies, energy, interest rates, metals, futures contracts, options, stock indexes, and cryptocurrencies futures.
Lee B. Stern is the longest tenured trader at the Chicago Board of Trade. He has been one of the most successful traders in the commodities market throughout his membership, and is well known for his involvement in the Chicago sports scene. He was the President of the North American Soccer League's Chicago Sting, and remains a director and minority owner of the Chicago White Sox.
The Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME) is a commodity exchange based in Dubai currently listing its flagship futures contract, DME Oman Crude Oil Futures Contract (OQD). Launched in 2007, the DME aims to become the crude oil pricing benchmark for the Asian market with its Oman Crude Oil contract, like the Intercontinental Exchange’s (ICE) North Sea Brent is to Europe and the New York Mercantile Exchange’s (NYMEX) West Texas Intermediate is to North America.
John Francis Sandner was an American business executive and community leader. He served three stints as the chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), now the CME Group, in the 1980s and 1990s.
NASDAQ futures are financial futures which launched on June 21, 1999. It is the financial contract futures that allow an investor to hedge with or speculate on the future value of various components of the NASDAQ market index.
Jill E. Sommers was sworn in as a commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on August 8, 2007 to a term that expired April 13, 2009. She was nominated on July 20, 2009 by President Barack Obama to serve a five-year second term., and confirmed by the United States Senate on October 8, 2009.
Everette Bagby Harris, was an American businessman. Harris served as President of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange from 1953 to 1978. During this time, he oversaw the diversification of the products traded on the exchange. He was previously the secretary of the Chicago Board of Trade.
Vincent "Vinnie" Viola is an American billionaire businessman and U.S. Army veteran. He was for several weeks President Donald Trump's nominee for United States Secretary of the Army, before withdrawing from consideration. He is the former chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), and the founder and chairman of Virtu Financial. Viola is the owner of the Florida Panthers, a National Hockey League (NHL) ice hockey team. He is also the owner of St. Elias Stables and co-owner, with fellow Brooklynite Anthony Bonomo, of the 2017 Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming.
Richard L. Sandor is an American businessman, economist, and entrepreneur. He is chairman and CEO of the American Financial Exchange (AFX) established in 2015, which is an electronic exchange for direct interbank/financial institution lending and borrowing. The AFX flagship product, the AMERIBOR benchmark index, reflects the actual borrowing costs of thousands of regional and community banks across the U.S. and is one of the short-term borrowing rates, along with the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, vying to replace U.S. dollar Libor as a benchmark in the U.S.
Charles Morgan Seeger III is an American attorney, author, and international derivatives and financial markets expert. Since 1992, Mr. Seeger serves as President & CEO of Financial Markets International, Inc., (FMI) a law and economic consulting firm.
Terrence A. Duffy is an American businessman. He is the chairman and chief executive officer of CME Group, a derivatives marketplace based in Chicago, Illinois.
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