Robert Birnbaum, Architect of Modern-Day Financial Markets, Dies at 94

As executives in New York and Chicago traded accusations, Mr. Birnbaum picked up the phone and called Mr. Brodsky, then the head of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

“Because of my relationship with Bob, we were able to work out, instead of all the hostility and the name-calling, we were able to work out things that made the markets better,” Mr. Brodsky said.

A few months after the crash, Mr. Birnbaum convened a meeting between the exchange leaders, including Mr. Brodsky and the New York Stock Exchange’s chief executive, John J. Phelan Jr., at the Four Seasons restaurant in Manhattan.

“We had to take the edge off,” Mr. Brodsky said. “It was a very calm business lunch. Bob was able to calm the emotions. And he was able to solve the problem.”

The executives worked out an agreement that would see all U.S. stock and equities options markets halt if price drops in the benchmark Standard Poor’s 500 Index reached certain thresholds, with pauses lasting for between 15 minutes and the rest of the trading day, depending on when in the day trading was halted and the size of the drop.

The marketwide circuit breakers were activated in 1997 and again on March 9, 2020, when stocks fell 7 percent just after trading began, amid fears that the coronavirus spreading around the world would severely damage the global economy. Fear over the virus tripped them three more times that month.

Mr. Birnbaum was retired by then and living in Boca Raton with his second wife, Gloria (Schenker) Birnbaum, who survives him. His first wife, Joy (Mumford) Birnbaum, died in 1990.

In addition to his son, Mr. Birnbaum is survived by a daughter, Julie Duffy; three stepchildren, Jeremy Dickens, Simon Dickens and Jenny Patinkin; and seven grandchildren. A brother, Stanley, died before him.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/08/business/robert-birnbaum-dead.html