The Most Popular Stories of 2016 on JohnLothianNews.com

As we end 2016 we should all stop in at Ceres in the Chicago Board of Trade Building for a stiff drink and to shake the hand of Billy Assimos. He was the focus of the most read story on johnlothiannews.com in 2016, according to Google Analytics.

Sarah Rudolph penned the story, “Billy Assimos, the Face of Ceres” in June of this year. Assimos is the longtime manager of Ceres, a restaurant and bar in the CBOT Building, and a friend of many. I guess it pays to serve the stiffest drinks in Chicago.

Coming in second place was Jim Kharouf’s story about former ISE founder and CEO Gary Katz, “Cannot be done”: ISE’s Gary Katz Tells The Inside Story Of The Biggest Disruptor To The Options Industry Standard. After ISE was sold to Nasdaq, Jim interviewed one of the true innovators of the financial markets. It would have been even more popular if we had shot it as a video, as we all know how popular katz videos are on the Internet.

The third most popular story was a video interview Jim Kharouf conducted down in Boca Raton at the FIA’s International Conference as part of our 2016 Exchange CEO Series. This interview was with Jeff Sprecher talking about data, clearing and growth for ICE. Jeff Sprecher is always a big draw.

The fourth most popular story of 2016 was one of the first written during the year, as I examined the statistics from the NFA about the number of new introducing brokers created in 2015, which hit a historic low. The story was titled “Getting Squeezed: Introducing Brokers Numbers Waning, Growth Wanting, Future Questioned; New Introducing Broker numbers hit historical low; IB Numbers Shrink 17 percent Since Financial Crisis.”

Coming in at number five was a commentary by Dr. Holly Bell posted to JohnLothianNews.com, Disruption is Not Innovation, looking at the IEX impact on the markets.

The first part of our 2016 Exchange CEO Series interview with former CME Group CEO Phupinder Gill was the sixth most popular story. Gill talked about “Looking For Customer Efficiencies.”

Another video interview came in seventh as the OCC’s Craig Donohue showed up in our most popular stories with “Make A Plan: How OCC Is Forging Change In The Options Industry.”

Jim Kharouf’s “Shipbuilding: RJ O’Brien Building Business in Tough Times” was the eighth most popular story on JohnLothianNews.com in 2016.

Jeff Bergstrom’s commentary on “What is Blockchain?” was the ninth most popular story of 2016.

Finally, another blockchain story, this one by Jim Kharouf, came in at number ten. His “ASX Gets Technical: ASX deputy CEO Peter Hiom Talks About New Trading Platform And Pioneering Into Blockchain” rounded out our top ten most popular stories clicked on during 2016 on johnlothiannews.com.