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
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: scaldwell@walshtrading.com
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: slusk@walshtrading.com
Register for Sean Grain & Livestock Outlook Webinar on Thursday, June 23rd at 3PM CST >>
View a Recording of Sean’s latest Grain & Livestock Outlook Webinar >>
Craig Sielaff, Executive Vice President, Structured Products/Introducing Brokers
Craig Sielaff is a registered commodity broker and Executive Vice President, Commercial Hedging Division of Walsh Trading in Chicago. Craig was fortunate enough to have grown up on a farm in Iowa. It was here he formed a love for agriculture. After high school, where Craig excelled at track, he went to the University of Iowa, graduating with a degree in business. Craig earned his MBA in International Finance and Marketing from Thunderbird University. After graduate school, Craig started his career with Pillsbury Co. as a feed and ingredient merchandiser. After Pillsbury, Craig moved into the risk management side of the business servicing customers. He has had an unique career servicing international and domestic clients in the agricultural sector. Craig has a unique ability to help service multiple sectors, across multiple time zones and geopolitical boundaries. He enjoys daily correspondence with clients and prospects alike. Craig is comfortable in a board room setting as well as a feedlot or elevator. He looks forward to servicing your needs.
Contact Craig
Phone: Direct: 312-957-8079 or Cell: 773-209-1525 or 800-556-9411
Email: ccsielaff@walshtrading.com
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: jweyer@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
Register for Ben’s Grain & Livestock Outlook Webinar on Thursday, June 23rd at 3PM CST >
View a Recording of Ben’s latest Weekly Grain & Livestock Outlook Webinar >
Jerry Hanselman, Senior Account Executive
Jerry began his career as runner at O’Connor and Company working summers during college 1990-1992. He graduated with a B.B.A. in Economics in 1992 from Harding University. After graduation he came back to work with the same trading group as a phone clerk at The Chicago Corporation and also working afternoons in operations. Jerry worked his way up from that position to eventually become a commodities broker at the same company which was bought out by the Dutch bank ABN AMRO. Jerry worked for ABN AMRO for fourteen years until the group moved to UBS which only lasted a year also having a membership on the Chicago Board of Trade for fifteen years. The next move was to Fortis which also ended up taking the ABN AMRO bank name and worked at that version of ABN for nine more years. In 2016 Jerry moved to Wells Fargo with the same group but move to operations to run the Chicago back office. After one more short stint at ABN AMRO in 2020 as an execution broker Jerry moved to Walsh Trading in 2022 back to his calling as a commodities broker.
Contact Jerry
Work Phone: 312-878-2391
Cell Phone: 630-248-7576
or 800-993-5449
Email: jhanselman@walshtrading.com
Mike Lisanti, Account Executive
Mike graduated from Loyola University in Chicago, earning both his BA and JD degrees. He successfully practiced law for 15 years as a Chicago native dealing with a variety of clients. Mike has taken his education and experience and has joined Walsh Trading to assist Ag based customers with their needs in the market. His focus is client centric, and he considers communication and the relationship primary to success. Mike will assist through an understanding of supply and demand fundamentals along with technical analysis. He looks forward to working with his customers in any of their market needs.
Contact Mike
Phone: 312-957-4731 or 888-391-7894
Email: mlisanti@walshtrading.com
Peter McGinn, Account Executive
Peter graduated from DePaul University in 2016 with a degree in Economics. His first position in the futures industry was with an Introducing Broker located in the Chicago Board of Trade. Peter specializes in cattle and hogs. After a short stay with Tradestation Securities, Peter moved to a large Futures Clearing Merchant where he serviced hedge funds and large agricultural companies dealing with row crop, cattle and hog production. Peter enjoys working with a vast array of customers, utilizing a combination of both futures and options. In addition, he relies on his own technical analysis to advise customers on his perception of the market.
Contact Peter
Phone: 312-985-0931 or 800-556-9411
Email: pmcginn@walshtrading.com
Peter Ori, Options Specialist
Peter started in the futures industry in 1984 employed with Geldermann. From there he moved to Commerzbank and HSBC Securities. His duties included handling institutional and retail business in the futures and options pits at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange working in not only Chicago, but Singapore, and Hong Kong as well. Peter became a floor broker at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in 1998 until 2006. He then moved to TJM investments where he handled customer business online. Pete handled customer business from all over the globe in an array of markets and multiple exchanges. Keeping with his entrepreneurial spirit, he made the move to Walsh Trading in 2018. He looks to aid farmers and ranchers with option techniques that protect future prices while offering short and long term opportunities that he sees in the market.
Contact Peter
Phone: 312-957-8103 or 888-391-7894
Email: peterori@walshtrading.com
