Our Team - Walsh Trading

EXECUTIVE TEAM

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 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 Grain Spreads Audio Commentary >>
Register for Sean’s Grain & Livestock Outlook Webinar on Thursday, October 18th at 3PM CST >>
View a Recording of Sean’s latest Grain & Livestock Outlook Webinar >>

James O’Connell, Director, Asset Management Division

James began his futures industry career in 1981 as CBOT floor manager for Rouse-Woodstock, Inc. and over the years has had affiliations with such Chicago firms as Harris Trust & Savings, Goldenberg Hehmeyer, Sanwa-BGK Securities, The Chicago Corporation, Lind-Waldock, and, PFGBest.

His experience is wide-ranging and includes success as an independent trader, general partner in a currency trade-dealing desk, vice president and government securities dealer, and, foreign exchange dealer. He also established and ran Forex dealing operation which grew to quick success setting consecutive-month profitability records. He has been an invited speaker before foreign and domestic audiences and sought out for opinions by media outlets.

Most recently James served as a vice president of managed futures. He now brings this particular expertise to Walsh Trading to lead the continuing growth of managed futures clients in their portfolio investment-sector diversification efforts.

Contact James
Phone: 312-985-0931 or 800-498-6936
Email: joconnell@walshtrading.com

On Wednesday, February 14th, James hosted a webinar with Walter Gallwas of iSystems. In this webinar, Using Algorithmic Trading in Commodity Investing, the use of algorithmic traders expertise and systems trading in the commodity markets was discussed. If you were unable to attend, you may VIEW A RECORDING.

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

Steve Bruce, Commercial Grain Analyst

Steve Bruce comes from the cash grain side of the market working for General Mills at the Chicago Board of Trade in the summers in the 1970’s calling the country to buy wheat at cheap basis levels and with Illinois Grain learning the barge trade. He then spent the 80’s, 90’s and 00’s servicing commercial clients with Geldermann and Man Financial from the trading floor of the Chicago Board of Trade shared market perception via print and electronic media.

Steve takes a fundamental approach to market analysis. He completed his undergrad at Marquette and MBA at De Paul. Steve believes in the free market, Chicago School of monetary policy, and less government involvement and intervention in the grain markets. He is risk adverse but emphasizes spread trades for optimal hedging profitability.

Contact Steve
Phone: 312-985-0156 or 888-391-7894
Email: sbruce@walshtrading.com

Listen to Steve’s Daily Agriculture Audio Commentary >

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 Grain & Livestock Outlook Webinar on Thursday, October 18th >
View a Recording of Ben’s latest Weekly Grain & Livestock Outlook Webinar >

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 >
Listen to Alan’s Daily Afternoon Commentary >

On Wednesday, June 27th, Alan held a Second Quarter Review and Third Quarter Outlook webinar. This included a Quarter Two wrap up and a surprising look into Q3. Alan took a look at behavioral conditions that can be triggers for key turns and moves and provide key insights into how to trade the summer grain market. VIEW A RECORDING.

Brendan Sears, Account Executive

Brendan started his work in the commodity futures space originally as an interning junior educational
advisor for a trading education & proprietary trading company in late 2014. There, he learned advanced technical analyses and algorithmic approaches to trading, focusing mostly on index futures, options and stocks under a veteran group of senior traders. Within months, he had completed his internship, and set out to increase his proficiency and exposure in brokerage and trading.

By late 2015, he started to acquire official licenses such as the Series 7 and Series 66, going on to work as a financial advisor for an independent financial planning firm. He took on another internship by mid 2016 with a futures firm located inside of the Chicago Board of Trade building, acquiring the Series 3, this time focusing on proprietary methods to trading futures options. After his time in this position, Brendan returned to securities to work for a large, global wirehouse and investment bank after being offered an entry level spot in the bank’s prominent, wealth management division in Chicago, in 2017.

Today, Brendan proudly works as an account executive within Walsh Trading. In this function, he helps
provide quality education, strategy development, execution and risk management to best serve the
needs and desires of the clients of Walsh Trading.

Brendan is also currently pursuing a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration at the University of the People, taking on a challenging self-directed education as he works to finish his degree by late 2020.

These opportunities have awarded Brendan the ability to offer his clients comprehensive and discerning insights into today’s markets, as he works to provide ideas that are clear, logical and no-nonsense. He works with all client types, but the clients who benefit most from his services are serious, honest and decisive when potentially money making (or saving) opportunities present themselves.

Contact Brendan
Phone: 800-993-5449
Email: bsears@walshtrading.com

James Walters, Grain and Livestock Specialist

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

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