John Walsh, President, Walsh Trading, Inc.
John began his career in the futures industry in 1986 at privately held firm, Barnes and Company. Barnes and Company was known for its presence at the Board of Trade, particularly in the agricultural sector. From Barnes, John held positions at the privately held firm, Argus and then at Continental Grain. During his time there, Continental Grain was one of the largest clearing firms in the world. Continental Grain had, and continues to maintain, extensive holdings in the cash cattle, poultry, swine, and agriculture industries. At Continental Grain, John had various responsibilities including working for the Options Group and the Risk Management Group where he serviced clients located all over the world.
In 1996, John left Continental Grain to found Walsh Trading, Inc., currently a registered Guaranteed Introducing Broker (GIB) and an NFA member. John’s focus at Walsh Trading has been on hiring and cultivating talented individuals and building relationships throughout the industry. Walsh Trading services some of the largest companies in the world, in their respective fields, as well as individual investors with a commitment to always putting the needs of its customers first.
John trades all markets, but concentrates his efforts in the agricultural sector, more specifically in the relationships revolving around the soybean crush. His trading methodology is based on fundamentals and a personally designed technical system.
Contact John
Phone: 312-208-8837 or [email protected]
Bill Allen, Vice President, Pure Hedge Division
Bill started on the floor of the CBOT in 1996 as a clerk in the soybean option pit. He became a member of the CBOT and a licensed Series 3 broker in 1998. Through relationships made on the trading floor, he filled customer and local orders in the soybean option pit for 20 years. He moved to the corn option pit in 2018, and continued to fill customer and local orders there, until the grain trading floor closed in March of 2020. He has traded futures and options on all of the grain products. Bill specializes in the grain complex and livestock markets with a focus on hedging risk in the option markets. Bill is now a senior account executive with Walsh Trading and is ready to work with customers to solve their unique trading and hedging goals.
Contact Bill
Phone: 312-957-8079 or 800-556-9411
Email: [email protected]
Steve Caldwell, Senior Vice President/Chief Operating Officer
Steve started in the commodity business in the back-office and then moved up to a management position in the mid-1980s. Wanting to move into the brokerage part of the business, he joined the Parrot organization to deal in the cash grain and futures trade in 1987. While dealing with cash grain hedging he traveled to Western Europe, Southern Africa and Asia. Thinking that the travel experience had run its course, Steve decided that he would stick with domestic traders in retail brokerage.
In general, Steve is a technical trader, but also believes that traders need to be aware of the various fundamental factors affecting markets to be successful on a long term basis.
Contact Steve:
Phone: 312.957.8083 or 800.587.6275
Email: [email protected]
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Sean Lusk, Vice President Walsh Commercial Hedging Services Division
Sean Lusk is a registered commodity broker and Vice President, Commercial Hedging Division of Walsh Trading in Chicago. Sean began in the business as a runner on the trading floor during summer breaks from college in 1993. Upon his graduation from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1996, Sean began his career on the trading floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). Overseeing billions of dollars of transactions working as a clerk in the Eurodollar pit, Sean took the next step and became a floor broker and member of the CME in 2003. He handled customer orders for banks and investment houses from all over the world from inside the Libor pit at the CME.
Now, at Walsh Trading, Sean utilizes his experience in the marketplace and his professional client service skills to aid and assist customers in their trading endeavors.
Sean writes daily and weekly commentaries focusing on the Agricultural Markets along with related market activity. He has been quoted in various media outlets discussing futures markets. These include, Futures Magazine, Reuters, Forbes, Kitco, Nikkei Press and CCTV.com.
Contact Sean
Phone: 312-957-8103 or 888-391-7894
Email: [email protected]
Register for Sean’s Grain Market Outlook Webinar on Wednesday, April 9th at 3PM CST >>
View a Recording of Sean’s latest Grain Market Outlook Webinar >>
John Weyer, Vice President Walsh Commercial Hedging Services Division
John Weyer started in 1992 as a runner for an independent brokerage group in the Eurodollar pit at the CME. As a clerk he helped handle thousands of contracts from institutional customers on a daily basis. John’s customer relationships and skill set helped enable him to become a CME member and execute customer orders as a floor broker. He later made the transition to a “local”, trading his own account in 3 Month Eurodollar futures.
John now uses the skills and experience acquired after 20 in the futures industry to help customers with their risk management at Walsh Trading as a Vice President of the Commercial Hedging Division.
Contact John
Phone: 312-985-0934 or 888-391-7894
Email: [email protected]
Stephen Davis, Senior Market Strategist
Stephen E. Davis has more than 30 years experience in the futures industry, A Minnesota native and University of St. Thomas graduate, he began his career on the trading floors of the Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Mercantile Exchange. There he acquired his knowledge of the futures and options business from the ground up, learning from many of the floor traders of all time. With our technology, today, we are much like floor traders of the past.
In 1996, Stephen became a Series 3 licensed broker. As a broker, he worked for two large futures commission merchant firms where he attended to a wide variety of accounts. His clients included corporate accounts, hedge funds, commodity trading advisors, farmers, ranchers and individuals.
Stephen enjoys developing business relationships with clients to help them learn and achieve their trading goals. He has worked with agricultural concerns—from small to large—to assist them with risk management in the futures markets. Stephen’s particular strengths are in agricultural and stock indices. His trading philosophy is 80 percent technical and 20 percent fundamental. Let Stephen’s experience help you achieve your trading goals.
Contact Stephen
Phone: 312-878-2391 or 800-556-9411
Email: [email protected]
Ben DiCostanzo, Senior Technical Analyst
Ben is a graduate of Pace University with a degree in Accounting. In 1984, he became a member of The Index and Options Markets of the CME. He is Series 3 Licensed. Ben has been involved in many areas of the Securities industry, from working as a runner on the NYSE to taking care of professional traders and institutional clients for Salomon Brothers on the CME. He traded equities as a local before moving on and working with individual clients.
Ben understands that every client’s need are different and he prides himself in tailoring his service to each client’s unique circumstances and needs. Individual client experience, risk tolerance, and capital all play a role in how he approaches the markets. He is very involved in all markets using technical analysis to find opportunities. Ben’s approach is driven by principles of capital preservation. His trading philosophy is that if you can recognize and manage risk, you have a better chance to be successful in trading. Ben advises all his clients to always use stops as money management – in his opinion, it is the most important ingredient in trading commodities.
Contact Ben
Phone: 312-957-4163 or 800-556-9411
Email: [email protected]
Register for Ben’s Livestock Outlook Webinar on Tuesday, April 8th at 3:15PM CST >>
View a Recording of Ben’s latest Weekly Livestock Outlook Webinar >>
Jefferson Fosse, Senior Account Executive
Jefferson Fosse grew up in a Northwest suburb of Chicago that was predominately occupied by farmers. He started in the Commodities business in the mid 90’s, learning the hedging business from the ground up in a well-known Agriculture firm. Jeff has worked with many different types of clients over the years, from ranchers and farmers seeking to hedge and market their production and price risk, to aggressive speculators and system traders looking to capitalize on market opportunities. He welcomes all types of clients. Jeff is well versed in the fundamental influences in virtually all of the commodity markets, but relies mainly on the technical signals generated by price activity and charts. He takes an approach that is rooted in risk management and achieving client objectives. If you’re interested in trading futures, using various options strategies or seeking to learn more about the tools that are available to you, give Jefferson a call or send him an email.
Jeff attended Western Illinois University and lives in Woodstock, IL.
Contact Jefferson
Phone: 312-957-8248 or 800-556-9411
Email: [email protected]
Jim Rinaudo, Associated Person
Jim joined Walsh Trading after starting on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade as a runner during school breaks. In 2014 after obtaining his Series 3 License he began his career as an Introducing Broker. Jim specializes in Commodities working on a client to client basis dealing with Hedgers and Speculators, managing risk, customer service and providing daily market research and trading opportunities. Jim attended Western Illinois University.
Contact Jim
Phone: 312-957-4731 or 800-556-9411
Email: [email protected]
Christopher Schreiner, Account Executive
Christopher Schreiner was born in North Suburban Chicago in 1958.
Chris attended Quigley Preparatory Seminary North, Chicago, graduate class of 1976, and DePaul University, Chicago.
He earned a Bachelor of Science, with a focus on International Business and Culture with Foreign Languages, 2015. Chris speaks fluent English, intermediate German and Italian, was the President of the French Club in college and also studied Spanish.
Chris began his experience in the Commodity and Financial Futures and Options industry working from 1981 to 1982 for Bache Halsey, Stuart, and Shields on CME Trading Floor as a Runner, and as a Telephone / Arbitrage Clerk alongside the Deutsche Mark and Swiss Franc, and Gold pits. Later Chris was a Co- Captain of the very busy Meat Desk for Weinberg Brothers, one of the original Clearing Members of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where he learned about the Cash and Futures Markets in the area of Pork Bellies, Hogs, Live Cattle, and Feeder Cattle.
In 1983 Chris began his career as a Broker (Registered Commodity Representative) for R, B, & H Commodities, Inc which also had a large presence in the Livestock and Meat Futures Markets.
In 2024, Chris joined the Commercial Hedging Division team at Walsh Trading as a Series 3 Licensed Futures and Options Broker.
Contact Chris
Phone: 312-985-0931 or 888-391-7894
Email: [email protected]
John Simpson, Senior Market Strategist
John is a registered Commodity Broker and Senior Market Strategist of Walsh Trading in Chicago.
John began his career in the commodity futures industry over 30 years ago as a runner on the CBOT floor in 1983.
During this time, he worked for Refco, a New York based financial services company primarily known as a broker of commodities and futures contracts. He was promoted to the Willard Sparks phone line which was the largest grain retail phone line in the world.
In 1989 he bought a CME membership, and he was an independent floor broker in the Eurodollar market with high-volume execution for Goldman Sachs, Citi Bank, Soloman Brothers and many of the world’s largest banks taking care of professional traders and institutional clients.
John’s passion for the markets and experience as a senior market strategist from the grains, livestock to the indices, energies and the currencies enables him to successfully assist his clients in managing risk in the markets and dealing with hedgers and speculators. He is Series 3 licensed.
His talent for working with individuals and building relationships throughout the industry allows him to always put the customer first to help them manage risk.
John’s trading methodology is based on technical and fundamental analysis to find opportunities in the market.
Contact John
Phone: 312-957-8108 or 800-556-9411
Email: [email protected]
Feng Ba, Director of Asia Pacific Agricultural and Investment Management