Thursday, February 11, 2010

Leap of faith: Former commodities futures trader dives into market

My Profession business profile for The Commercial Appeal

February 11, 2010

In spring 2009, Richard Morrow willingly jumped from the reasonably sound ship of commodities futures trading into the sinking boat of stocks and bonds.

"In commodities, what you do is get a small percentage of someone's high-risk capital because commodities are considered risky," Morrow said. "I've always wanted to manage a bigger piece of someone's pie, so to speak."

For the previous 20 years, Morrow had managed individual and institutional accounts in the commodities futures market for Bondurant Futures. He went with Wunderlich Securities during what he calls "ground zero for the financial meltdown" to manage individual and institutional client portfolios using an equity and bond-based platform that does not include futures trading.

"In commodities, we were relatively unscathed by all that (financial meltdown), so I didn't have the financial and emotional baggage of a blow-up," Morrow said. "I was essentially an observer, upset for my friends and country, but for the most part I averted disaster." ... (read more)