Chicago Mercantile Exchange

Nassim Nicholas Taleb / Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Born Nassim Nicholas Taleb in 1960 year, in the Lebanese city of Amioun. His family professed Orthodoxy. During the civil war, which began in 1975 year, they were deported. Father of Nassim Nicholas, Dr. Taleb was an oncologist, did anthropological research. Among his ancestors are politicians, representing the interests of the Orthodox community of Lebanon. So his maternal grandfather and great-grandfather were deputy prime ministers of Lebanon, paternal grandfather served as Chief Justice, and also in 1861 his great-great-great-great-grandfather served as governor of the semi-autonomous Ottoman province on Mount Lebanon. Taleb has held senior positions in brokerage firms in London and New York, and also worked on the stock exchange, before starting his own hedge fund company Empirica LLC (futures and options sales). He received his Master of Business Administration degree (MBA) At Wharton School and defended his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Paris. Author of "Dynamic Hedging" and "Fooled by Randomness".

Лео Меламед (Leo Melamed)

One of the most powerful figures in the financial world – Лео Меламед (Leo Melamed) – revolutionized futures trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. However, like his fellow financial genius George Soros, Melamed first had to take an amazing journey, which included eluding the Nazis and Russians, to get to the United States. IN 1939 year he and his family fled from Poland to Lithuania, but, when they got there, they needed a transit visa, to continue the journey. “Even my philosophical father, – told Melamed, – could not explain, how you can reduce a person's life to waiting in line for a piece of paper, which could mean the difference between life and death”. Crossing Siberia by train, young Melamed learned his first lesson in strategy – stay calm and focused under fire – because, to his amazement, father plunged into chess, obviously, oblivious to the chaos around him.

Leo Melamed

One of the most powerful figures in the financial world – Leo Melamed (Leo Melamed) – revolutionized the trade futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. However, like his colleague’s financial genius of George Soros, Melamed first had to take an amazing journey that included slipping away from the Nazis and the Russian to get into the United States. In 1939, he and his family fled from Poland to Lithuania, but when they were there, they needed transit visas to continue the journey. “Even my philosophically minded father – told Melamed – could not explain how you can reduce a person’s life to wait in line a piece of paper, which could mean the difference between life and death.” Crossing Siberia by train, the young Melamed learned my first lesson in strategy – stay calm and focus under fire – for, to his amazement, his father fell into chess, apparently ignoring the chaos around him.

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