YesTrader

So I was thinking about a few things but mostly how the pit was displaced w/the various software frontends, which companies were able to survive the early competitiveness and also how Tickit did things right after the industry matured over 10 years after inception.

I was really fortunate to start my career alongside the emergence of electronic futures trading and one name stands out as a symbol of early excesses, YesTrader. Perhaps the most memorable thing about the company was that it famously took over THE best office view in Chicago, the former Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith office at the front of the CBOT which looks straight down LaSalle. Merrill Lynch gave up the office because they shut their commodities (metals and grains) business at pretty much THE low, right before those markets started to go nuclear as noted in this article from Futures Magazine March 1, 2000: Merrill Lynch dumps commodities

Anyways, I never used YesTrader software but remember the company being noted for being bold enough to snag that prime office and also that it had former CBOT Chairman Pat Arbor on the board, ironically who also pushed for building the new gigantic CBOT financial trading floor. After 16 months in business, YesTrader filed for bankruptcy and this article explains some of the background of the trading software industry at the timein late 2001:

YesTrader forced to file for Chapter 7

I really admire anyone with the courage and conviction to start a company so YesTrader should be acknowledged as an early pioneer in electronic trading.

For a look at their company operations, I had to fire up the WayBackMachine and found an early version of YesTraders Flash based website and also the final version of the YesTrader website.

Tickit Trading Systems Profile Video

I'm a big fan of using Tickit's software to trade and wanted to post this recent video from Crain's Chicago Business on a profile of the company after they won a recent award. They asked if I'd take questions for the interview and I was happy to help out since the software really helped me. Full disclosure: I not involved in the company except as a client who still pays full price and I don't receive anything for putting their link on this website or tradingpithistory.com

Two great finds by Chris Willinghurst

The first is a lengthly 16 page article that ran in Donhue's magazine in 1907 entitled "The World's Food Exchange, Sketches of Life and Character on the Chicago Board of Trade." The article is a wonderful primer on the early legends and fuction of the CBOT.



Second submission from Chris was a NYTs article "A visit from 'Old Hutch" from June 23, 1891 on a visit Old Hutch made to NY. It's noted in there about Old Hutch's cocktail:



It took me a while to realize it but that's basically ginger ale and there are some nice unfiltered ginger ales out on the market such as such as Fresh Ginger Ginger Ale by Bruce Cost which I tried recently and is great.

Old CBOT trading floor hand signals

The following except I clipped from a 1947 magazine on the CBOT which listed some handsignals.



Above is four signals which show different trading/brokerage firms to indicate their activity. Notice how simple they are just as 'modern' day signals were as well.



The four months listed, only July is the same. Sept and Dec got much more efficient and easier to signal as the market needed arb speed 20-25 years later.

I have to admit that signals were far more advanced at an earlier period than I imagined before stumbling upon this article.

Traders vs. Intruders part 2

That was clipped from The Southeast Missourian August 18, 2001

According to a friend who was there at the time, everyone ran off the trading floor and a couple traders went to the parking garage to get THEIR guns from the car and tried to find him in the building. Supposedly the guy was mad about gas prices or something that didn't even have to do with wheat trading.

Great Moments in Trading Pit History: Traders vs. Greenpeace

Photo from BBC

An oldie from 2005 when Greenpeace protesters visited the floor of the International Petroleum Exchange and got their ass beat.

Kyoto protest beaten back by inflamed petrol traders Times Online story

Global oil trading stopped Greenpeace's version

The New Gatsbys

For those who want to read trading pit stories, I can make no better recommendation than to read The New Gatsbys: Fortunes and Misfortunes of Commodity Traders by Bob Tamarkin which was published in the early 1980s and can be found on the internet for under $5. It's a perfect mix of historical and contemporary (atleast when it was published) stories from commodities trading and truly shows the fortunes or misfortunes that participants have faced.