CBOE Origin Remembrances: Mike Gallagher

By Lawrence G. McMillan

I met Mike Gallagher shortly after I joined Thomson McKinnon Auchincloss Kohlmeyer (TMAK) in 1976. Mike ran the Thomson operation on the floor of the CBOE at the time. Later, as I progressed to trading the TMAK arbitrage and option proprietary accounts, Mike and his partners were our main floor brokers on the CBOE. I talked to Mike recently, and asked him about some of the early days at the CBOE 

Q: Mike, how did you become the first Thomson employee to head up the floor operation on the CBOE?

I was a broker dealing in stocks on the American Exchange (AMEX), and in 1974 the AMEX decided that they wanted to list options, too. So there was an operation whereby they were simulating trading in options on the AMEX – training floor brokers, etc. That was in preparation for the AMEX Option Exchange, which eventually opened in 1975.

But in 1974, the firm I was working for went out of business. Howard Whitman was an executive at Thomson McKinnon, and he had previously been TMAK’s broker on the AMEX. Howard knew me and heard that my firm had gone out of business, so he contacted me about going to Chicago to be Thomson’s broker on the CBOE.

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