Summer Playlist 2026 Episode 2 | Joe Raia, Thomas McMahon, & Russell Robertson from the Abaxx Team

July 18, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

“It took us three years, and it began in 1987… That first day in the nat gas pit, three people showed up, me and two other guys. And we almost had to bribe them to come into the pit.” That is Tom McMahon, co-founder of Abex Technologies, recalling the launch of the Henry Hub natural gas futures contract. On this episode of SmarterMarkets, McMahon is joined by Joe Ria and Russell Robertson, Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Business Development Officer at Abex Exchange and Clearing House, respectively. Together with host Dave Freerily, they trace the arc of building commodity futures markets over five decades — from the physical pits of Nymex to the electronic, globalized exchanges of today — and extract the durable principles that separate a successful contract from a forgotten ticker.

The Long, Unsexy Work of Launching a Benchmark

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What you'll learn

1 Timestamped Outline
2 (02:52) **Tom McMahon on Launching the Henry Hub Natural Gas Contract** - Describes the three-year journey from committee assignment to first trade in March 1990
3 (06:36) **From Three Traders to Commercial Adoption** - Explains how the Henry Hub contract gained traction through a crisis
4 (08:22) **Joe Raia on Building Clearport After Enron's Collapse** - Describes creating the first exchange-cleared OTC swap market after the 2001 crisis
5 (11:57) **Educating the Market on a Novel Product** - Details the year-long roadshow to teach firms how to convert OTC contracts into futures
6 (13:56) **The Cadence of Product Launches** - Explains how cash-settled contracts enabled rapid scaling
7 (14:15) **Russell Robertson's Perspective on Market Evolution** - Contrasts his experience with Tom and Joe's, noting the shift from pits to screens

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

On the second installment of our Summer Playlist this week, we welcome Thomas McMahon, Joe Raia, and Russell Robertson into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Thomas is Co-Founder of Abaxx Technologies; Joe and Russell are Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Business Development Officer at Abaxx Exchange and Clearinghouse.

David Greely sits down with them in Singapore to discuss their experiences in building new commodities futures markets from first trades to commercial adoption over the past five decades – and the opportunities they see ahead.