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Jeff Carter – Open Outcry Traders History Project

John Lothian

John Lothian

Executive Chairman and CEO

Jeff Carter is a Chicago-based trader and venture capital executive and long time member of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where he formerly served on their board of directors. He is currently a manager with West Loop Ventures, an early stage venture capital fund.

He sat for an interview with John Lothian News for the Open Outcry Traders History Project and has encouraged other current and former traders to do the same.

Carter is a co-founder of HydeParkAngels.com, an angel investor network in the U.S. Midwest.

He was a member of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and traded his own account for 24 years. He is the author of the Points and Figures blog, which he calls “An irreverent Look at Economics, Finance, Trading and Politics.

Produced by Mike Forrester

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More Trader History Videos

In the Pits: Policing, Camaraderie, and Redemption on the NYBOT Floor

In the Pits: Policing, Camaraderie, and Redemption on the NYBOT Floor

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Fred Schoenhut, former chairman of the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT), likened his role on the floor committee to being part of the trading floor’s police force. “I would get into a lot of heated arguments with people when I would see something unethical or illegal… But often, apart from the fines, not much would happen to those brokers,” he recalled in a candid interview. Violations, he lamented, seemed almost “part of the game,” and true consequences were rare. “There was just too much that wasn’t punished… it enabled people to continue to trade unethically.”

From Bark to Byte: Fred Schoenhut on the Human Drama Behind NYBOT’s Move to Electronic Trading

From Bark to Byte: Fred Schoenhut on the Human Drama Behind NYBOT’s Move to Electronic Trading

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Open Outcry Traders History Project Interview with Former NYBOT Chairman, Part 4

ELMHURST, IL – (JLN) – May 2, 2025 – When Fred Schoenhut, the former chairman of the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT), remembers the end of open outcry, he doesn’t see just flashing screens – he sees lingering ghosts of a rowdy, deeply human marketplace. “Many of the traders knew that electronic trading was a powerful alternative… but our customers would tell us they preferred open outcry, they preferred the personal interaction,” Schoenhut recalled in a wide-ranging interview. The traders, he observed, were lulled into a “false sense of security” that the pit would persevere.

The Day the Yelling Stopped: Fred Schoenhut on the End of Floor Trading and the Lessons of Survival

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Open Outcry Traders History Project Interview with Former NYBOT Chairman, Part 3

Fred Schoenhut, the former chairman of the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT), didn’t leave the trading floor; it left him. “As the exchanges were changing…there was pressure to monetize,” he recalled in a MarketsWiki Education Open Outcry Traders History Project interview. Over the decades, the Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange morphed and merged with the Cotton Exchange, ultimately becoming NYBOT. But with the early 2000s came a rush to bring trading from the chaos of the pits to the quiet of the screen. “Shortly after [the merger with ICE], all the markets went electronic. That’s really…when we stopped trading open outcry,” Schoenhut said.

Bringing the Team to the Trading Pit: Fred Schoenhut Recalls Wild Days and Wiser Lessons at NYBOT

Bringing the Team to the Trading Pit: Fred Schoenhut Recalls Wild Days and Wiser Lessons at NYBOT

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Open Outcry Traders History Project Interview with Former NYBOT Chairman, Part 2

ELMHURST, IL – (JLN) – April 30, 2025 – If you wandered onto the New York Board of Trade floor in the 1980s, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was less of a market and more of a reunion. For Fred Schoenhut, former NYBOT chairman, trading was a family affair and a team sport. “My three sisters’ husbands, my best friend from Little League, even guys from my hockey teams, they all ended up working for us,” Schoenhut reminisced in a recent interview. The exchange was booming: what once passed for a busy 3,000-lot day in coffee contracts ballooned to 10,000-lot rolls and beyond, forcing Schoenhut’s business to grow just as fast.