Closing of Chicago trading pits: a requiem for family ties
CHICAGO — Thomas Cashman was not long out of law school when his dad, Tom, brought him to the Chicago Board of Trade soybean pit in 1994. The two spent the next 10 years trading side by side, until Thomas moved upstairs to begin trading on computer screens.
Thomas, a third-generation CBOT trader now back practicing law and trading on the side, is a member of one of the betterknown trading families in Chicago's 167-year history of futures trading. Over time, 24 Cashmans worked on the CBOT trading floor, all tracing their roots to the first Cashman on the floor: George, who came after high school in the late ’40s. He later bought seats for his brothers Gene and Ed.
“It made it easier for me to break into the markets, but on the other hand I had that responsibility to live up to the family reputation,” said Thomas, speaking ahead of the closure of Chicago's futures pits, expected as soon as Monday.
The Cashmans and other multigenerational trading families were a hallmark of Chicago's commodity pits, their flailing arms and unique hand gestures a signature of the Chicago Board of Trade and its longtime rival, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
The closure of open-outcry futures trading is bringing an end to surprisingly close connections among traders that have characterized the Chicago exchanges for decades.
“They created a community atmosphere,” said Libby Mahoney, a historian with the Chicago History Museum, which has an exhibit focused on the Chicago pits. “There was a familiarity between the traders and that came from
being handed down amongst many families.
“The face-to-face encounters they had with each other created other connections that weren't family but they became professional connections,” she said. “You're going to see them the next day and the next day — you can build that kind of trust.”
Tom Cashman, 76, is the last family member to go to the CBOT grain floor every day. His sons Thomas and Brendan, 48 and 43, still trade futures and options in Chicago, but both do so in front of electronic screens.
Tom’s uncles sponsored him as CBOT member in the 1960s, and he traded through historic market events like the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear plant and the Black Friday market crash of 1987.
The current patriarch of another longtime Chicago trading family, John Pietrzak, bought his CBOT seat in 1979, exactly 30 years after his father bought a seat. His grandfather started as a runner at the exchange in 1913 after a neighbor, seeing the boy hard at work cutting his grass, offered him a job as clerk on the trading floor.
For floor trader families, necessity often meant opportunity.
Kelly King, the only child of fabled corn broker Richard “Whitey” King, began working on the trading floor in 1988 at age 15. A drought hit that summer, and with grain prices soaring, her father pressed Kelly King into service, handling the avalanche of paper orders coming into the pit. She was hooked. “It was rocking,” said Ms. King, the first and only remaining female corn broker in the pit. “Completely insane.”
Ms. King said she intends to stop trading once the pits close. She has obtained her real estate broker's license and is partnering with a friend.
On Feb. 6, when CME Group Inc, parent of the Chicago futures exchanges, held a meeting to inform traders of the decision to close the pits, a few complained loudly. Five months later, though, most sound sanguine about the pit closures.
“All stories have to come to an end. The markets will still go on,” said Thomas. “If you can figure out a way to participate then you can still be part of the game.”