EXECUTIVE TEAM
- John Walsh, President
- Steve Caldwell, Chief Operating Officer
- Sean Lusk, Director Commercial Hedging Services
- John Weyer, Director Commercial Hedging Services
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 Independent Introducing Broker (IIB) and an NFA member with the ability to clear at multiple, futures clearing merchants at the benefit of its clients. 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 800-993-5449
Email: jwalsh@walshtrading.com
Listen to John’s Daily Soy Complex Audio Commentary >>
Listen to John’s Daily Global Overview Audio Commentary >>
Steve Caldwell, Chief Financial 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: scaldwell@walshtrading.com
Listen to Steve’s Daily Currency Audio Commentary >>
Sean Lusk, Co-Director Walsh Commercial Hedging Services Division
Sean Lusk is a registered commodity broker and Co-Director of the 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 Precious Metals and 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: slusk@walshtrading.com
Listen to Sean’s Daily Gold/Precious Metals Audio Commentary >>
Register for Sean’s Weekly Grain Outlook Webinar >>
John Weyer, Co-Director 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 Co-Director of the Commerical Hedging Divsion.
Contact John
Phone: 312-985-0934 or 888-391-7894
Email: jweyer@walshtrading.com
Listen to John’s Daily Corn and Wheat Audio Commentary >>
SPECIALISTS
- Kofi Amoabin, Director of African Business
- Ben DiCostanzo, Senior Technical Analyst
- John Lunney, Senior Analyst
- Alan Palmer, Senior Technical Analyst
- James Walters, Senior Grain & Livestock Specialist
Kofi Amoabin graduated from the College of Engineering at Brown University in 1983 and worked as an engineer at Xerox, Polaroid, and AT&T Bell Laboratories. Additionally, Kofi holds a MS in Finance from Lewis University and a MA in Communications from DePaul University. Kofi’s solid mathematical background attracted him to market analysis and trading, especially for commodities exported from or imported into Africa, such as cocoa, coffee, sugar, cotton, and crude oil. In 1991, Kofi obtained his license as a futures broker. Kofi has a deep knowledge of sub-Saharan Africa and its reliance on revenue from cash crops; he uses this knowledge to manage risk in futures for entities in Africa that want to trade on the worldwide commodities and futures markets.
Kofi’s primary responsibility at Walsh Trading is hedging or managing risk for commercial traders and subvented government agencies that trade cocoa, coffee, sugar, cotton, crude oil and export and import commodities.
In addition to his work at Walsh Trading, Kofi teaches public courses on trading futures, options, and risk management for individuals and companies, consults in business development for US-based companies considering Africa markets, and recruits African students for Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture.
Kofi also serves as the Executive Director of US-Africa Trade Research Institute, a not-for-profit entity promoting trade between the US and Africa. In this role, Kofi has brought Ministers of Agriculture and other high-level government officials from Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda to the United States to initiate multi-million trade deals.
Contact Kofi:
Phone: 312- 985.0308 or 630.923.1567
Email: kamoabin@walshtrading.com
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: bdicostanzo@walshtrading.com
Listen to Ben’s Daily Livestock Audio Commentary >>
Register for Ben’s Weekly Livestock Outlook Commentary >>
John Lunney, Senior Analyst
John Lunney began his trading career in 1989 as a clerk for IFO, the largest futures and futures options brokerage on the CME floor. Within one year, John was promoted to an executing floor broker responsible for handling large individual and institutional accounts. John’s knowledge of option theory and tactics quickly attracted a growing customer base. In 2000, John began exclusively trading futures and futures options for his own account. John later became a founding member of VI Capital, a proprietary trading company funded with personal and investor funds. At VI Capital, John was the director of risk management, technical analysis and strategy development. VI Capital realized multi digit returns over the course of 8 years of trading.
John has extensive trading experience in stock indexes, metals, commodities, energy and agriculture products. He believes that hard work reveals the best trading opportunities, and strong discipline creates consistent results. John possesses a unique ability to connect with customers, understand their goals, and work with them to create long and profitable relationships.
Contact John
Phone: 312-957-8108 or 888-391-7894
Email: jlunney@walshtrading.com
Alan R. Palmer, Sr., Senior Technical Analyst
Alan R. Palmer, Sr., is a successful independent trader and technical analyst specializing in agricultural, financial and stock index futures. He has worked primarily in the markets traded on the CME Group.
Alan started trading at the Chicago Board of Trade in 1986 in the 30-year U.S. Treasury bond pit as a local. In 1987, he bought his full membership the day of the historic crash and moved back to his passion, trading soybeans, and grains along with bonds and stocks. Moving from pit to pit as market indicators dictated, Alan used his charting calculations to spot pivotal points as markets crossed ‘key levels.’ This acumen is Alan’s specialty and now he delivers this knowledge and experience to his customer base. He offers a macro thought process to viewing markets and players as they act with predictive behavior acumen.
He began his career in the futures industry as a summer runner while thirteen on the floor of the CBOT in 1973 delivering orders and learning the rudimentary workings of the markets. He graduated from runner to phone clerk, delivery clerk during the Hunt silver squeeze, working for various brokerage firms. After earning a Bachelor’s degree from DePaul University while working full time, he began a career as a proprietary trader with Paul Tudor Jones, a world-renown money manager, where he perfected his technical analytical techniques.
Alan has appeared on CNBC, Bloomberg, CNN, and has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Bloomberg and Reuters newswires. He was the founder of Nasdog.com, an independent research and charting web enterprise, based on time-tested, support and resistance calculations for predicting multi-market swings. Alan holds an undergraduate degree in Business Finance Administration from DePaul University in Chicago.
Contact Alan:
Phone: 312.957.8248 or 888.391.7894
Email: arp@walshtrading.com
Listen to Alan’s Daily Morning Commentary >>
James Walters has been involved in the equity stocks and futures business for over 30 years. He graduated from DePaul University with a Bachelor of Science degree in commerce majoring in economics and finance. Jim also served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War and was trained as a cryptographer – a top secret code specialist.
Jim entered the commodity futures industry in 1973 as an associated person handling customer accounts. He spent a great deal of time working with farmers and livestock feedlots, traveling to Oklahoma, Iowa, Nebraska, and the Dakotas. As a sales manager for a large commodity firm, Jim supervised 22 brokers and spent time researching various markets. He became a member of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and learned the art of trading cattle, hogs, and currency futures. Jim was also a member of the Mid America Exchange where he traded all of the grain markets.
Throughout his career Jim has been with various investment companies which has provided him the opportunity to see many different types of trading programs and techniques. Jim has developed a day trading method that has been a successful model for him for many years.
Contact Jim
Phone: 312.948.9456 or 888.391.7894
Email: jwalters@walshtrading.com
