John F. Eckstein III, 74, one of the first traders of Treasury bill futures contracts following their debut in 1976 and a pioneer of cash-futures arbitrage trading in the U.S. government bond market, died July 24 at a nursing home in New Rochelle, N.Y. He never fully recovered from a heart attack he suffered in 2005, his son, John F. IV, said.
He began his career as a Treasury trader at First National City Bank - a predecessor of Citibank N.A. - and worked at Discount Corp. of New York, an independent dealer of U.S. government securities. Mr. Eckstein then founded J.F. Eckstein & Co. around 1972, according to his son, director of research at Astor Asset Management L.L.C., a division of Jersey City-based Knight Capital Group Inc.
