Gelber Group

Brian Gelber earned a chapter in Jack Schwager's Market Wizards, and he still sits with junior traders at the firm he and his brother Frank started on the CBOT floor in 1982. Gelber Group began as a brokerage, then did something most floor shops never managed: it converted to screen-based proprietary trading around 1997, well ahead of the industry.

Today it trades only its own capital across FX, fixed income, equities, futures, and energy, blending discretionary judgment with algorithms and drawing a sharp line between itself and brokers, banks, or hedge funds. The flat, open-plan Chicago operation runs an EU entity in Amsterdam and a second US desk in White Plains, with recent pushes into Brazilian B3 futures and energy.