Why Chicago has so many traders and why are they so rich?

[chet everett]

Disappear is a pretty strong word.

http://www.cmegroup.com/company/memb...p-pricing.html

[Larry Siegel]

Originally Posted by chet everett

Disappear is a pretty strong word.

http://www.cmegroup.com/company/memb...p-pricing.html

I believe most of the seats are now held by institutions (or individuals on behalf of institutions such as hedge funds) when at one time there were many held by individuals (on their own behalf).

It's the independent-trader jobs that have largely disappeared, not the seats on the exchange.

[chet everett]

There are still many many people that have the resources to trade for themselves. The large value of contracts in some futures is such that the capital swings makes it advantageous to have a hedge fund type structure however there are still a large number of folks that can make a very comfortable living trading the contracts that have provided income for generations...

[svillechris]

To answer the OP's question, there are A TON of people who work in the financial markets who make quite a good living doing so. The reason is because, at least on the commodities side, there are multiple exchanges in Chicago, namely the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. To the individual who mentioned that traders are a dying breed... nah, not true. From someone in the industry with first hand experience, it's still a huge industry with the potential to be extremely financially rewarding. What has changed the most is that it's all gone electronic, at least mostly. The old days of everything happening down in the pits of the exchanges is long gone.

Also, it may seem like everyone in Chicago says they are "traders" but that word is probably a bit overused. My guess is that people call themselves traders when they are prop traders, registered trading advisors, fund managers (both securities and commodities), and even brokers. Brokers often times like to call themselves traders to sound more prestigious but frankly they're just offering their advice to other customers and don't really have legal authority to trade anyone else's money. Is everyone in the industry getting uber rich every day? No. Is there a lot of money to be made? Yes. There are a fair share of people who try to make it in the industry who are either not smart enough or not disciplined enough in one way or another, and they typically go bust and see their way out in due time. There are plenty of others who are making a good living year in and year out who are extremely well educated, work very hard at it, and are deserving of their success.

While New York is the epicenter of the securities world, Chicago is the center of the commodities industry so yes, there are a lot of people that make their living in the financial industries here making a lot of money.