Commodity & Pit Traders

August 26, 2005 20058 11:18 pm | In Trading |

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Steven Berkson

City: New York
Exchange: NYMEX
Age: 41

Maybe the biggest natural-gas trader in the ring, Berkson had a banner 2004 – possibly the best of any energy local, NYMEX sources report. Berkson (whose badge reads BERK) keeps a low profile outside the ring.
Estimated income: $20 - $25 million
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Mark Fisher

City: New York
Exchange: NYMEX
Age: 45

Fisher, considered among the most talented energe traders ever, makes most of his dough through his clearing firm, MBF Clearing Corp. But the gold-badge man and NYMEX grassroots leader still trades with the best of them.
Estimate income: $15 - $20 million
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Eric Bolling

City: New York
Exchange: NYMEX
Age: 43

What He Trades: Natural-gas futures are Bolling’s market of choice, though he got his start in crude oil. “If you think of the crude-oil pit as a $100-minimum table,” he explains, “then natural gas is the $1,000-minimum table. It’s hugely volatile.” The international nature of energy appeals to him. “Chicago has a lot of grain markets and agricultural pits where the markets are localized, but energy is global. Something can happen in Saudi Arabia that has ripple effects from Shanghai to Manhattan.” Bolling owns two seats on the NYMEX, two on the Comex and two on the NYBOT.

How He Trades: Bolling is down in the pits all day, every day. When trading ends, he monitors his positions electronically. Still, he remains a devotee of the cut and thrust of the floor: “When something happens in the market, they all go to open-outcry, because that’s where the volume is.”

Bolling represents a lot of that volume, claiming responsibility for as much as 5 percent of the action in the natural-gas pit. Six-foot-one and a former professional third baseman, he says the physical and mental edge that comes from competitive sports gives him an advantage. “When you’re on the field or on a court, there’s a process you go through in your mind that is similar to making a commodities trade or a pit trade. Not necessarily an upstairs, long-range hedge-fund manager’s trade. But in an instantaneous pit trade, athletes are very good.”

How He Got Started: In 1985, Bolling, drafted out of Rollins College by the Pittsburgh Pirates, was playing for their single-A affiliate in Bradenton, Florida, when a routine grounder came his way. “I picked up the ball, turned to throw and heard a pop in my shoulder,” he says. “That was it, the end of my career.” He started looking for other jobs. A Chicago native, he had seen the serious money to be made at the exchanges. Later that year, he found himself on the energy desk for Prudential-Bache in Boston.

“I realized that the people really making money were on the trading floor. So I did whatever it took to get down there.” He leased his first seat in 1987 and bought his first seat the next year.
Estimated income: $10 - $15 million
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Tom Gordon

City: New York
Exchange: NYMEX
Age: Mid-40s

One of the most successful NYMEX traders last year, Gordon scored as crude prices went through the roof. "Tommy is one of the top oil traders down there," says one NYMEX veteran. Gordon is a large contributor to the exchange's charitable foundation.
Estimated income: $10 - $15 million
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Kevin McDonnell

City: New York
Exchange: NYMEX
Age: 45

A NYMEX institution, the unassuming McDonnell is one of the best energy crack spread traders ever. NYMEX sources say he was one of the most successful traders in the pits last year, often playing crude against gasoline prices. He was also among a group of traders who spent time in Dublin attempting to build the exchange's European energy-trading presence.
Estimated income: $10 - $15 million
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Alan Rottman

City: Chicago
Exchange: CME
Age: 42

Few Chicago traders were as fortunately placed last year as the Eurodollar options guys. Rottman, who trades front months, and his team rode some late-year volatility in what turned out to be a fantastic 2004. "We've been specializing in this sector for 20 years," Rottman says of his group. "And we experienced a very profitable year."
Estimated income: $10 - $15 million
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Jeffrey Wolfson

City: New York
Exchange: NYMEX
Age: Mid-40s

Known by his badge, GEOF, Wolfson does serious volume in the crude-oil pits. "They don't come much bigger," says one industry source. Wolfson blows off steam generated in the NYMEX trenches by playing basketball at night.
Estimated income: $10 - $15 million

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