Belvedere Trading

Belvedere Trading grew out of the SPX pit at the Chicago Board Options Exchange, where Tom Hutchinson founded it in 2002 and bet early that proprietary technology and options modeling would outrun open-outcry instinct. The firm still anchors itself to index options, now quoting them electronically rather than by hand signal.

From that Chicago floor it spread to Boulder, New York, and Singapore, building its own pricing and risk systems in house. Belvedere is unusually candid about its internal culture, codifying mottos like Build Rockets, Not Balloons, and it points to low turnover as evidence the partnership model holds. For a Chicago market maker, staying put is itself a distinction.