Zero-Sum Game

An insider account of the 2007 merger of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade — the deal that created the world’s largest derivatives exchange — written by a banker who worked the CBOT side while the Intercontinental Exchange ran a competing bid. The book is about the mechanics of a contested merger between two open-outcry institutions with rival cultures and floor-trader shareholders who had to vote it through, at the moment electronic trading was rendering the pits obsolete.

Why it’s on the list: One of the 46 books @mastersinvest read in 2025 — market-structure history rather than a founder memoir, which makes it unusual company on this list.

Where I saw it: @mastersinvest’s “2025 Reading … so far” list, August 20, 2025, annotated “(CBOT/CME/ICE)”. The full 46-title list is transcribed on 2025 Reading So Far… (tweet).

Connections

• 2025 Reading So Far… (tweet) — the list this came from.