William Brodsky: Writing the rules, shaping the future

摘要

At the end of World War II, Winston Churchill quipped that history would be kind to him, because he intended to write it. Something similar could be said for William J. Brodsky: the derivatives industry has been kind to him, in part, because he has had such an active role in shaping it. In his 40 years in the industry, Brodsky has served as an executive at the American Stock Exchange, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange. And at each he guided the inception, not just of new products, but also of new asset classes, including tradeable equity options, stock-index futures and options, options on futures, single-stock futures and most recently volatility index options. As a compliance lawyer at a securities brokerage firm in 1973, a terrible year for the stock market, Brodsky sought extra job security by taking responsibility for the firm's membership and compliance at the fledgling Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). He passed the required exam and became a registered option principle for the firm, responsible for supervising traders and customer business, and published a pamphlet about the options industry and its regulation. He later took that knowledge with him to the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), which was interested in launching its own equity options products, and he became the head of options trading, special council on government relations and later represented the Amex as a board member at the Options Clearing Corporation.