Zero-Sum Game: The Rise of the World's Largest Derivatives Exchange

In 2007, a stranger-than-fiction multibillion-dollar bidding war for the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) erupted between the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and Atlanta’s IntercontinentalExchange (ICE). iZero-Sum Game: The Rise of the World’s Largest Derivatives Exchangei takes readers behind the scenes of this battle to tell the gripping—and often comical—story of how the historic merger between CME and CBOT almost didn’t happen. pAuthor Erika S. Olson, a managing director at CBOT during the bidding war, delivers a blow-by-blow account of the fight for the world’s oldest futures exchange, taking you inside CBOT’s landmark Chicago Loop headquarters, onto the high-octane trading floor, and into executives’ offices.p pThrough the lens of the CMECBOT deal, iZero-Sum Gamei:p ul type="disc" liIntroduces the colorful and outspoken personalities who call the shots in this close-knit and frequently misunderstood industryli liDetails the reasons behind the recent, spectacular growth of a market that’s existed for over 160 yearsli liExplains how derivatives affect the lives of average consumers worldwide by influencing everything from interest rates on credit cards to the cost of a cheeseburger to the price of a gallon of gasli liReveals the inner workings of futures exchanges, and differentiates the various types of derivatives that are routinely lumped together and vilified by the mediali ul pErika S. Olson is a former managing director of the Chicago Board of Trade and spent over ten years working in and consulting to the financial services industry. She received her MBA from Harvard Business School and her BBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.p Read more