Myron Scholes helped create the intellectual foundation for the modern derivatives markets. As one of the co-authors of the famous Black-Scholes equation for determining the value of derivatives, Scholes helped revolutionize the trading of options. After graduating from the University of Chicago’s graduate school with a concentration in financial economics, he taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Standford University. Then in 1990, he moved to Wall Street to join Salomon Brothers, initially as a consultant and later as a managing director in fixed income derivatives sales and trading. In 1997 he was awarded the Nobel prize in economics for helping develop the Black-Scholes model. Though Scholes is best known for his work in options, he also understood very clearly the connection between options and futures and he was a strong proponent for using futures to hedge options positions. He also has been an active force in helping futures exchanges in their research and product development efforts and has served on the board of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange since 2000.
