The New York Stock Exchange was credited with helping to navigate a major financial crisis during Black Monday in 1987, when the stock market plunged. He died at the age of 94.
His son said his father died of a long illness.
Mr. Birnbaum was one of the most reliable stewards on Wall Street. He was a member of a special team at the Securities and Exchange Commission that studied the mechanics of marketplaces in the mid-20th century and helped shape exchanges in the US.
Mr. Birnbaum made public comments about how long trading would be halted on the New York exchange, which helped soothe the market.
The leaders of various exchanges, including the Chicago-based options marketplaces, were brought together to discuss what had happened and how it could be avoided in the future. He designed a series of rules for when to stop trading and how long in the event that prices fell too far.
William J. Brodsky, one of Mr. Birnbaum's successors, later served as chief executive of both the Chicago Board Options Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. This was about making it all better than a lot of the egos on Wall Street wanted it to be.
Robert Jack was born in the Bronx to parents who had fled Russia. His mother did various jobs while his father owned a furniture store.
After graduating from DeWitt Clinton High School, Mr. Birnbaum attended New York University and later went to law school, completing his first year at the University of California, Hastings, before transferring to finish his degree at Georgetown University.
He began his career at the General Accounting Office before moving to the Securities and Exchange Commission. He was part of a team that produced a study on the mechanics of the securities markets. Congress wrote new legislation based on the report that let exchanges regulate themselves after the study recommended a change in the structure of financial market exchanges.
Kenneth R. Leibler said that Mr. Birnbaum was the progenitor of the National Market System.
The system Mr. Birnbaum helped create is one in which trades in stocks and stock options are cleared in a central facility put in place to make sure that each trade's two sides match up properly, and in which there is a national price quotation mechanism that gives market participants everywhere an
After leaving the S.E.C., Mr. Birnbaum became the president of the American Stock Exchange. In 1984 he told the commission about some unusual trading activity ahead of the publication of a regular Wall Street Journal column. Mr. Winans had been giving a notice of his columns to a broker in exchange for money. One of the most high-profile insider trading cases in history was the result of Mr. Birnbaum's tip.
The New York Stock Exchange wooed Mr. Birnbaum away from the American exchange in 1985. He was the first executive to leave.
In a 1988 Washington Post article, Mr. Birnbaum talked about his time working on the markets report for the S.E.C., where he worked nights on Mondays and Tuesdays and all day on Saturdays and some Sundays. His father wanted to guard his private time against the demands of his success on Wall Street.
He said that when his dad became president of the N.Y.S.E., they wanted to give him a beeper. My father said no. Why would I want you to be out of town?
The October day in 1987 when things got out of control was when Mr. Birnbaum brought his deep knowledge of the markets and his strong relationships with other exchange leaders to bear.
Mr. Brodsky said it was chaotic. Why did the crash happen was a big question at the time. Who was to blame? A lot of people pointed out that the futures on the S&P dragged the market down.
Mr. Brodsky was the head of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange when Mr. Birnbaum called him.
Mr. Brodsky said that he and Bob were able to work out things that made the markets better because of their relationship.
The exchange leaders met at the Four Seasons restaurant in Manhattan.
Mr. Brodsky said that they had to take the edge off. The business lunch was very calm. Bob was calm. He was able to solve the problem.
The executives worked out an agreement that would stop the stock and options markets from functioning if the S&P 500 Index dropped below certain thresholds.
The marketwide circuit breakers were activated in 1997 and again in 2020 because of fears that the coronaviruses would damage the global economy. They were scared of the virus three more times that month.
Mr. Birnbaum was retired and living in Boca Raton with his second wife. His first wife, Joy, died in 1990.
Mr. Birnbaum is survived by his son, son-in-law, daughter, three stepchildren, and seven grandchildren. Stanley died before his brother.
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