Archives: 2007 August

Richard Dennis was already a highly successful commodities trader when he came up with his idea of what soon became known as the “trading turtles”.

Dennis had an office tucked away on the antiquated twenty-third floor of the Chicago Board of Trade building. The outside hallway had dingy brown paneling. Etched in small lettering in his office door was “C&D Commodities, Richard J. Dennis and Company.” It was a very plain rather drab office.

No marble. No glass. No impressive entrance of any sort. Immediately next door was a grimy looking men’s room. The office entrance disguised the performance of an individual who, in his own estimate, made up to $200 million from trading commodities.

According to Dennis, “I don’t think trading strategies are as vulnerable to not working if people know about them, as most traders believe. If what you are doing is right, it will work even if people have a general idea about it. I always say you could publish rules in a newspaper and no one would follow them. The key is consistency and discipline.”

Dennis had a theory about commodities trading that he wanted to test out. Dennis placed small classified ads in newspapers and magazines stating “trader wanted.” He got some 1,000 responses from people eager to learn his methods. He settled on fewer than two dozen novices–among them two professional gamblers and a fantasy-game designer.

The Futures Industry Association (FIA} is the only association representative of all organizations that have an interest in the futures market. The FIA has more than 180 corporate members, reaching thousands of industry participants.

The Futures Industry Association website has a highly useful feature called “eclips” that brings you news that relates to the futures industry. If there is a hot issue that has an impact on commodity futures trading you are likely to find it there.

Regular Members are futures commission merchants. The FIA estimates that their regular members are responsible for more than 80% of the customer business transacted on U.S. futures exchanges. Through these members they represent the needs of futures industry customers; in fact, their members include the top 20 firms in terms of customer equity.

Associate Members include international exchanges, banks, legal and accounting firms, introducing brokers, commodity trading adviser’s, commodity pool operators and other market users, and information and equipment providers headquartered in the U.S.A. and abroad.

As you can see this is a powerful association of industry movers and shakers.

If you have a strong interest in the gold bullion market as well as silver and other metals you will probably want to check out TheBullionDesk website.

Not only will you find current pricing information but there are multiple news feeds that bring in all the latest information about the gold and silver markets. Quite a few mining companies advertise on the site as well so you can follow the links for specific company information.

In addition, there are equity reports that report on the stocks of companies involved in precious mining operations. Dated reports are provided for free but you must be a member of a premium service to get up to date reports on companies of interest.

If you are a gold bug or are starting to develop gold bug fever TheBullionDesk is a website that is information rich when it comes to gold and precious metals.