Fred D. Arditti

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Fred Arditti was the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s chief economist from 1980 to 1982 and played a critical role in the development of the exchange's Eurodollar futures contract, one of the most actively traded futures contracts in the world and one of the most essential building blocks of the interest rate swaps market. Eurodollars were the first cash-settled futures contract, and they paved the way for non-physical delivery for the burgeoning growth of financial futures and other traditionally physically delivered products. 
He died on Oct. 30, 2005 of pancreatic cancer. At the time of his death at age 66, Arditti was a tenured professor of Finance at DePaul University in Chicago, having retired from the position of senior executive vice president of the CME in March 2000.
Arditti returned to the CME in 1997 to assume a leadership role in the development of the exchange's weather derivatives market, its research, marketing and clearing functions, as well as its electronic trading business. 
He spent many years in academia, teaching at universities such as the University of Florida. His book Derivatives: A Comprehensive Resource for Futures, Interest Rate Swaps and Mortgage Securities, is one the most assigned books on the subject of the markets in many universities.
A native New Yorker, Arditti was born and raised in the Bronx. 
 
In 2005, Arditti was inducted into the Futures Industry Association's Futures Hall of Fame, which was established that year to commemorate outstanding contributions to the global futures and options community.
== Education ==
He received his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering, and his PhD. in economics from M.I.T. in 1966.
== Fred Arditti Center for Risk Management ==
In 2006, the Department of Finance at DePaul University, with a $1 million CME Trust grant over four years, established the Fred Arditti Center for Risk Management to honor his lifetime achievements in the fields of risk management and financial engineering. The center is intended to design and implement a curriculum in risk management and financial engineering, conduct research through the appointment of Arditti Scholars, and offer internships to meet the needs of students and the industry. 
== CME Group Award ==
The CME Group's Center for Innovation Fred Arditti Innovation Award, which was changed to the Melamed Arditti Innovation Award, is named after Arditti and CME Chairman Emeritus Leo Melamed. The CME Group Fred Arditti Innovation Award was created to honor an individual or group whose innovative ideas, products or services have created significant change to markets, commerce or trade. The award strives to celebrate innovation that through practical application has had a positive impact on the economic well-being of individuals, industry or a nation. Past recipients of the award have been Economics Nobel Prize winner William Sharpe, Leo Melamed, CME Group Chairman Emeritus and Eugene Fama, distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. 
== References ==
Category:Futures Hall of Fame Members
Category:Former CME Officials
Category:Economists
Category:CME Group
Category:CME Group
Category:Deceased