Cattle trader from Chicago here

Help Support CattleToday:

rgjujitsu

Member
Joined
May 13, 2014
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
Hi everyone my name is Scott and I trade cattle options in Chicago. I'm trying to learn more about the actual process and how it works and I've learned a lot just reading these boards, so thank you. I work for a small company, I've got a wife and three kids and i haven't made any money going on three years. If you have any questions regarding what happens here at exchange in chicago feel free to ask, I'll be glad to share what little I know. Thanks for having me.
 
rgjujitsu":15kw9rl9 said:
Hi everyone my name is Scott and I trade cattle options in Chicago. I'm trying to learn more about the actual process and how it works and I've learned a lot just reading these boards, so thank you. I work for a small company, I've got a wife and three kids and i haven't made any money going on three years. If you have any questions regarding what happens here at exchange in chicago feel free to ask, I'll be glad to share what little I know. Thanks for having me.

I appreciate you sharing your knowledge. I would like to know how I could make no money for 3 years and have my wife with three kids stick around. Also wondering how you feed them.
Thanks.
 
rgjujitsu":2tny9kpk said:
Hi everyone my name is Scott and I trade cattle options in Chicago. I'm trying to learn more about the actual process and how it works and I've learned a lot just reading these boards, so thank you. I work for a small company, I've got a wife and three kids and i haven't made any money going on three years. If you have any questions regarding what happens here at exchange in chicago feel free to ask, I'll be glad to share what little I know. Thanks for having me.
I dont mean to sound mean but if you have not made any money on cattle options in 3 years I do not want to hear what you know. This has been the best time in decades for trading.
 
tsonda4570 said:
Welcome aboard. Do you have a seat on the exchgange? Just curious.[/quotthee]
No, I lease my seat. My uncle was chairman of the board of cbot a long time ago but he tells the story of backin the late 60's he was in Texas trying to get farmers to hedge using the exchange. This cowboy says to him boy how many head of cattle you got? He says of course none. The cowboy says then what the hell are you doing telling me what to do with mine. My uncle says your right let's go to the bar and talk about it. He said that was his best night of signing up accounts.
 
djinwa":11zyol89 said:
rgjujitsu":11zyol89 said:
Hi everyone my name is Scott and I trade cattle options in Chicago. I'm trying to learn more about the actual process and how it works and I've learned a lot just reading these boards, so thank you. I work for a small company, I've got a wife and three kids and i haven't made any money going on three years. If you have any questions regarding what happens here at exchange in chicago feel free to ask, I'll be glad to share what little I know. Thanks for having me.

I appreciate you sharing your knowledge. I would like to know how I could make no money for 3 years and have my wife with three kids stick around. Also wondering how you feed them.
Thanks.

I've exhausted all my savings, drained 401k, and am close to losing my home. But you didn't really care about our well being did you.
 
kenny thomas":hf86t7wz said:
rgjujitsu":hf86t7wz said:
Hi everyone my name is Sctheott and I trade cattle options in Chicago. I'm trying to learn more about the actual process and how it works and I've learned a lot just reading these boards, so thank you. I work for a small company, I've got a wife and three kids and i haven't made any money going on three years. If you have any questions regarding what happens here at exchange in chicago feel free to ask, I'll be glad to share what little I know. Thanks for having me.
I dont mean to sound mean but if you have not made any money on cattle options in 3 years I do not want to hear what you know. This has been the best time in decades for trading.
Even if you were being mean it wouldn't bother me, so no need to apologize. I'm sure it's the same in your business but trading on the floor will develop some of the thickest skin imaginable. And you must not know many people that trade on the exchange floor if you think anyone in the live cattle options on the actual floor is doing well. I've been doing it for ten years and I've seen more guys lose their shirt in the last three than the first seven combined.
 
Hook":qgqxa14f said:
How do you feel about pem, sulfur, and feeding grains?
Absodolutely nothing, but that's why I'm here. But you already knew thSureat. What do you know about kurtosis?Gamma/theta ratio? Iron butterflies? Quite the welcome wagon you all have here.
 
rgjujitsu":3971y30t said:
I'm sure it's the same in your business but trading on the floor will develop some of the thickest skin imaginable.

Its nothing like the skin youll get around here if you stick around. If you can get through all the bs on here theres tons of info. :welcome:
 
Thank you for the welcome. You're right, I've already learned a ton. I'm sure it would be a blast if a bunch of traders and a bunch of cattle ranchers went out for drinks.
Craig Miller":32yxk7g4 said:
rgjujitsu":32yxk7g4 said:
I'm sure it's the same in your business but trading on the floor will develop some of the thickest skin imaginable.

Its nothing like the skin youll get around here if you stick around. If you can get through all the bs on here theres tons of info. :welcome:
 
No thanks, city slickers and pencil pushers don't interest me in the least. But I do find it hard to believe that there's no money to be made on your end of the cattle business. Why don't you tell us what the problem is on your end. Everyone on our end pretty much knew that the price of beef was going up, when it stayed steady on $7 dollar corn.
 
Hello and thanks for sharing your offer to help. I am interested to get your take on the relationship between what you do and the prices we receive at the sale barn.

You do realize that when you preface your offer of help with the admission of being less than successful you are writing to many people who are extremely successful at what they do; whether it is cattle, construction, lawyers, doctors, accountants, etc? How many unsuccessful people that you know own over 30 acres and cattle?
 
It's like every other commodity or index, it's a technology arms race. Certain market makers get preferential treatment from the exchange in the form of execution speeds and information called cti codes. It has a lot to do with high frequency trading firms and the exchanges selling their soul for volume.
highgrit":l1q1fvsk said:
No thanks, city slickers and pencil pushers don't interest me in the least. But I do find it hard to believe that there's no money to be made on your end of the cattle business. Why don't you tell us what the problem is on your end. Everyone on our end pretty much knew that the price of beef was going up, when it stayed steady on $7 dollar corn.
 
ask away. i was at one time very successful, and i'm trying to get back there. i'm also interested in what you all think of computerized trading and do you feel you get better hedges as a result in the increase in volume.
JWBrahman":2vyg5kas said:
Hello and thanks for sharing your offer to help. I am interested to get your take on the relationship between what you do and the prices we receive at the sale barn.

You do realize that when you preface your offer of help with the admission of being less than successful you are writing to many people who are extremely successful at what they do; whether it is cattle, construction, lawyers, doctors, accountants, etc? How many unsuccessful people that you know own over 30 acres and cattle?
 
rgjujitsu":p8okm4y0 said:
ask away. i was at one time very successful, and i'm trying to get back there. i'm also interested in what you all think of computerized trading and do you feel you get better hedges as a result in the increase in volume.
JWBrahman":p8okm4y0 said:
Hello and thanks for sharing your offer to help. I am interested to get your take on the relationship between what you do and the prices we receive at the sale barn.

You do realize that when you preface your offer of help with the admission of being less than successful you are writing to many people who are extremely successful at what they do; whether it is cattle, construction, lawyers, doctors, accountants, etc? How many unsuccessful people that you know own over 30 acres and cattle?

Welcome to the board, you probably won't get the warmest reception as we have had a couple of traders come around before that weren't treated exactly fair.

If you had poor positions on over the past few years it would have made it easy to be on the wrong side of the rally. I fell that if you tap into the knowledge and market feel in "country" it could help you in the future. Pretty easy to get a feel for the cash cattle market by talking to some of the folks around here who spend time in trading cash cattle as opposed to trading the paper.

The biggest issue I have with hedging cattle is that the basis is so unpredictable. Unless you are trading larger volumes it's not a true enough hedge to be worth paying margin calls, at least not over the past few years in what has been a strong market. If things were to tank the basis wouldn't be such an issue.
 
rgjujitsu":1l7bcin3 said:
ask away. i was at one time very successful, and i'm trying to get back there. i'm also interested in what you all think of computerized trading and do you feel you get better hedges as a result in the increase in volume.
]

Not sure computerized trading is much of an issue for the southern cow calf producers, but future prices certainly do affect the contract guys who lock in prices ahead of time. Prices are affected by so many variables that have nothing to do with trading speeds or how many pennies per picosecond the middlemen can scam off of hardworking citizens. Your conversation is with the consumer, and how much of a tax you put on our product...
 

Latest posts

Top