I began my career in the futures industry as a runner on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange after graduating from St. Mary’s University (San Antonio, TX) in 1990 with a BBA in Finance. I spent the next twelve years there, most of them managing a direct floor access operation in the S&P 500 futures pit. This was toward the advent of retail traders calling the floor directly and the exploding popularity of the S&P futures contract. My desk worked with a wide variety of clients: “upstairs” brokers, day traders of all sizes, “give-up” institutional traders… you name it. I spent quite a while trying to get some of them to do business my way: “this is how you enter an order”, “talk like I talk”, etc. After struggling with it for a brief time, I realized that we should be the ones who change: get to know the people calling us better and understand what they want from us.

During this time, I also changed my mantra: “open outcry will not die”. I even wore a button on my trading coat that espoused this mistaken belief. However, the writing was on the wall (and has become crystal clear today): market participants prefer the transparency of electronically traded futures contracts. The surging trading volume of the E-Mini SP contract that was occurring before my eyes told I needed to make a move.

Fortunately, I joined my business partner, Greg Parks, (off the floor) in May 2002. He had inherited one of my “give up” customer’s client mix of speculative, “hedge” and managed accounts several years earlier.

Though sitting in front of a screen all day has been very different than the “action” I used to see in the pits, these past few years have taught me a lot and I strive to learn more about this exciting business every day.

The futures and options markets are exploding to heights that I could not imagine several years ago. Global, 24-hour access to these contracts presents unique opportunities for both speculators and hedgers. However, there are still many who remain drastically underserved and virtually left behind in this growth. Today’s electronic trading and 24 hour access has not reduced the high demand for personalized brokerage services for many individuals, groups and institutions. In fact, it has become apparent that
quite the opposite is true. Many speculators and hedgers have ideas about and uses for these markets,
but do not have the time or the desire to be tied to a computer screen everyday watching the markets.

These are my clients. It is where I started moving more than a decade ago. It is where I aim to stay.

I still think a lot about my old colleagues from the floor. Many are no longer in the futures industry. I still talk about how a group of us chuckled all those years ago at a friend’s comment that the E-Mini SP could conceivably trade one million contracts in a day… The one thing I still espouse that many of these friends instilled in me: a client needs to feel complete confidence in a broker. No matter what the circumstance. Ask the tough questions. Do the right thing. Especially when it is not the easy thing to do. These relationships are not born overnight. They are things that I have come to value and foster.

Andy and his wife, Lourdes, live with their three children in Oak Park, IL. During his free time, he enjoys working with a network addressing neighborhood issues and concerns, serving on his children’s elementary school Parent Teacher Organization and volunteering at the Frank Lloyd Wright Home & Studio: giving tours and helping with their major fundraising house walk every year.