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I started my career in 1983 in the Futures Industry as a runner in the financial pits at the Chicago Board of Trade. I was working for Peavey Grain Co. Over the next few years at Peavey I worked as a phone clerk and accounts receivable clerk within the accounting department. 

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In the mid 1980's there was a wave of company consolidations in the industry and I found myself out of a job. Lind-Waldock & Co. was the largest discount commodities firm in the futures industry. I landed on my feet with Lind-Waldock & Co. A firm that believed in training employees to work under pressure and make risk management the focus on the trading desks. I became a supervisor of one of these trading desks. 

 

In the Late 1980's Lind-Waldock created a subsidiary company (Gateway Financial Services Ltd). Gateway was the clearing firm to IB's (Introducing Brokerage firms) where I became Vice President of Operations. I was responsible for all the day to day operations, Risk Management,Compliance, and trade desks operations. At this time I also created a blog called "The Contrarian" where clients could go to find out the latest technical and fundamental analysis about the markets. As consolidation in the futures industry continued into the 1990's Gateway Financial Ltd. was sold to ING Bank

 

After Gateway Financial Services Ltd. I returned to Lind-Waldock to help expand another division (LindPlus) , full services brokerage. Providing one on one help to investors new to the futures industry, along with promoting trading strategies designed for each client's risk tolerance.

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In April of 2008, I had a gut feeling that something bad was going to happen in the markets. It was such a strong feeling that I took a part time night job at Costco. Why Costco? I felt if the economy was going to turn lower the best place to have a job would be at a place that sells food. By the end of summer 2008 I instructed all my clients to liquidate all their futures positions. My reasons were simple. First, the markets had a nice three year run. Second, the seasonal trend is down in Sept.,Oct. and Third, Presidential elections in Nov. markets don't like uncertainty.

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I followed this by saying by April 2009 we can reevaluate the markets for 2009. Last thing I said was enjoy the Beijing Olympics and we will talk after the games. We all know what happened after the Beijing Olympics...

 

I left the Futures Industry in 2009. I continue following markets to this day and look for the chance to provide my experience to a new generation of investors.