CBOE Holdings Inc. parent of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) opened public trading at $32.80 on June 15, a 13% premium to its $29 initial public offering price announced yesterday. The IPO raised $278 million for the exchange based on its 9.6 million share portion of the overall 11.7 million-share IPO.
Earlier in the morning staff and former members of CBOE gathered in the former OEX and soon to be VIX options pit to watch CBOE Chairman and CEO Bill Brodsky ring the opening bell of the Nasdaq Stock Market remotely from Chicago.
Brodsky was introduced by long-time friend and rival Sandy Frucher, vice chairman of Nasdaq OMX, and was joined by CBOE officials, Ill. Governor Patrick Quinn and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.
Brodsky said, This is a tremendous day for CBOE, the exchange has had a remarkable history beginning with the creation of listed options and many of the people who have written that history are right here with us today.”
One of the people there from the beginning was Tony Moreno who began working at the CBOE in 1973 as a brokers clerk when it was still based in the Chicago Board of Trade building. Moreno referred to the early days as the wild west and said it seemed like it may never happen amid all of the legal battles over exercise right over the years. Moreno, whose son is a trader in the SPX pit at CBOE, bought his membership in 1985 for $200,000. He pointed out that it lose 25% of its value a year later but based on today’s closing price of CBOE stock, it is worth more than $2.6 million.