David Goldberg was a successful trader at the Chicago Board of Trade as well as a mentor to many and one of the people who helped turn a small grain exchange into a worldwide operation.
“He was a successful, disciplined trader,” said Charles Carey, a partner at HC Technologies and a former chairman of the Chicago Board of Trade, now part of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Goldberg, who with his brother, Robert, established Goldberg Brothers in 1969, was “a mentor to many of us and a coach,” Carey said.
Goldberg, 85, who had been in failing health for some time, died Oct. 5 in his home in Naples, Fla., according to his daughter Catherine Busch. Goldberg, who lived in Golf, Ill., for many years, had been spending more time in Naples in recent years, his daughter said.
“In addition to his own business, in addition to helping people, he really was part of a group of people who transformed the Chicago Board of Trade into a global marketplace, one of the guys who transformed us from being a grain exchange to being a worldwide marketplace for agriculture and financial instruments,” Carey said.
Goldberg was among a group of industry leaders who created what became the Chicago Board Options Exchange.
Prudent about his own trading, Goldberg also paid attention to what his customers were doing. “If he thought someone was taking too much risk, he’d ask them to find another place to trade,” Carey said.
“He often talked and taught other traders about discipline,” said David MacLennan, chairman and CEO of global food company Cargill. “He was a prudent risk-taker.”
MacLennan, who started his career as an entry-level clerk with Goldberg’s firm and became a senior vice president there before going on to head the giant Cargill, called Goldberg a mentor who gave him an opportunity to learn the business.
“I wouldn’t be here (at Cargill) if it weren’t for him,” MacLennan said.
He described his mentor as a “scalper,” a trader who takes small profits of a cent or less on a bushel of grain and closes out his position every day instead of waiting for large and dramatic price moves.
Richard Sandor, who met Goldberg after joining the CBOT as vice president and chief economist in 1972, described the Goldberg firm: “They basically were a brokerage house and their clients were professional floor traders and market makers.” Sandor, now chairman and CEO of the American Financial Exchange, said the firm “was a pocket of conservative in a world of risk.”
Goldberg was born in Chicago and grew up in the North Side neighborhood of Rogers Park. After attending Sullivan High School, he spent time at the University of Illinois before enlisting in the U.S. Coast Guard around the time of the Korean War.
He began at the Chicago Board of Trade as a floor clerk and became a trader and CBOT member in 1956, according to family members, who said he was a partner with Geldermann & Co. before he and his brother started their firm in 1969.
Initially, the firm cleared only the brothers’ trades, but expanded as friends and colleagues asked to become customers. The brothers sold their firm to London-based LIT America in 1988.
Goldberg wasn’t interested in retirement, so in 1989 he founded Burling Bank, a boutique financial services business located in the Chicago Board of Trade Building. He served as chairman of the bank for 27 years.
Goldberg served on numerous boards, including those of Loyola Academy and Regina Dominican High School in Wilmette, Catholic Charities and St. Francis Hospital.
Survivors include his wife, Linda; two other daughters, Julie Unruh and Elizabeth Powell; a son, Andrew; his brother, Robert; and 14 grandchildren.
Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Nov. 4 at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, 1775 Grove St., Glenview, Ill.
Graydon Megan is a freelancer.