The CME Group Center for Innovation (CFI) today announced Robert C. Merton, School of Management Distinguished Professor of Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Myron S. Scholes, chairman of the Board of Economic Advisors of Stamos Partners, are the 2011 CME Group Fred Arditti Innovation Award recipients. Both recipients are recognized for their significant contributions to the financial markets, including the discovery and development of the Black-Scholes options pricing model, used to determine the value of options derivatives. The award will be presented at the fourth annual Global Financial Leadership Conference in Naples, Fla., Monday, October 24.
"The Fred Arditti Award honors individuals whose innovative ideas created significant change to the markets," said Leo Melamed, CME Group Chairman Emeritus and Competitive Markets Advisory Council (CMAC) Vice Chairman. "The nexus between the Black-Scholes model and this Award needs no explanation. Their options model forever changed the nature of markets and provided the necessary foundation for the measurement of risk. The CME Group options markets were built on that infrastructure."
"The Black-Scholes pricing model is still widely used to minimize risk in the financial markets," said Scholes, who first articulated the model's formula along with economist Fischer Black. "It is thrilling to witness the impact it has had in this industry, and we are honored to receive this recognition for it."
"Amid uncertainty in the financial markets, we are pleased the Black-Scholes pricing model still plays an important role in determining pricing and managing risk," said Merton, who worked with Scholes and Black to further mathematically prove the model. "It is quite an honor to be recognized by CME Group for this achievement."
Chosen annually by the members of CMAC, the CME Group Fred Arditti Innovation Award is named after the exchange's former Chief Economist Fred Arditti, who was instrumental in developing the index upon which CME's Eurodollar futures contract, the world's most actively traded futures contract, was founded. The award honors 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 are Economics Nobel Prize winner William F. Sharpe (2005), Leo Melamed, founder of financial futures and CME Group Chairman Emeritus (2006), Eugene Fama, distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (2007), Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP and Mayor of the City of New York (2008), Harry Markowitz, Nobel-prize winning economist (2009) and Dr. David Ferrucci, IBM Senior Manager (2010).