Pat Arbor: Open Outcry Traders History Project

Pat Arbor answered a blind ad in the Chicago Tribune for a grain trader at Uhlmann Grain at the CBOT in 1962, and the rest was history – quite a bit of history. He made several big mistakes at first, such as selling his CBOT membership in 1968 to pay back a $14,000 debt, but he wound up back at the CBOT again, eventually becoming the longest-running chairman in the exchange’s history. Arbor talked to JLN for the MarketsWiki Education Open Outcry Traders History Project about his love of floor trading, which back then was an all-male hotbed of gossip, camaraderie, and fighting – but success was based on merit. He goes over a long and rich history, including exchange politics, historic events and how he eventually made money when he learned how to spread.