Here's an old excerpt from Trader Monthly:
Darren Petterson
Age: 30
Firm: TransMarket Group
City: Chicago
Trades: Yield curve
As a wide receiver on the 1997 national-champion University of Michigan football team, Petterson learned how to stay focused on the ball while ignoring the guys trying to run him over. This skill served him well on the floor of the CBOT. Now trading by screen -- he trades eurodollar futures, mainly the red and green packs, as well as Treasury bond futures -- Petterson isn't afraid to take contrarian positions when naysayers abound. "When I started playing football at Michigan, I was a walk-on," he says with a shrug, "and I had everyone telling me 'You can't do it.'" But despite the steep odds against a walk-on making the team, Petterson busted his ass -- and two years later, he was playing. "I just got good at ignoring what people think," he says.
After college, he joined TransMarket Group in Chicago, becoming the first of four Petterson brothers to successfully trade for the firm. He spent time under the tutelage of TransMarket chairman Ray Cahnman before heading out to trade Treasury futures for his own account, successfully exploiting arbitrage opportunities in the early days of electronic trading. "Ray had a tremendous influence on me," Petterson says. "He's the ultimate mentor. Before I came in, he'd take people under his wing all the time, but he had decided he was too old for it. Then he decided to take one last chance -- on me."
In 2001, Petterson bought an associate seat on the CBOT. He has since enjoyed both a 1,600 percent run-up in the seat's value and consistent seven-figure trading profits.
While his success has enabled him to buy a 4,500-square-foot home in Chicago's trendy Wrigleyville neighborhood and a scenic lake house in southwestern Michigan not far from his hometown of Flint, the walk-on Wolverine seems prouder of the fact that he has been able to follow in the footsteps of Cahnman and mentor other traders.
"My youngest brother was the first one to get in, and he started to do well," Petterson says. "Then my other brothers said, 'It looks like you guys are having fun -- we want to try this out.' So from there, I took some of their friends in and taught them how to trade, too. Now I've brought six people into the business."
Darren Petterson
Age: 30
Firm: TransMarket Group
City: Chicago
Trades: Yield curve
As a wide receiver on the 1997 national-champion University of Michigan football team, Petterson learned how to stay focused on the ball while ignoring the guys trying to run him over. This skill served him well on the floor of the CBOT. Now trading by screen -- he trades eurodollar futures, mainly the red and green packs, as well as Treasury bond futures -- Petterson isn't afraid to take contrarian positions when naysayers abound. "When I started playing football at Michigan, I was a walk-on," he says with a shrug, "and I had everyone telling me 'You can't do it.'" But despite the steep odds against a walk-on making the team, Petterson busted his ass -- and two years later, he was playing. "I just got good at ignoring what people think," he says.
After college, he joined TransMarket Group in Chicago, becoming the first of four Petterson brothers to successfully trade for the firm. He spent time under the tutelage of TransMarket chairman Ray Cahnman before heading out to trade Treasury futures for his own account, successfully exploiting arbitrage opportunities in the early days of electronic trading. "Ray had a tremendous influence on me," Petterson says. "He's the ultimate mentor. Before I came in, he'd take people under his wing all the time, but he had decided he was too old for it. Then he decided to take one last chance -- on me."
In 2001, Petterson bought an associate seat on the CBOT. He has since enjoyed both a 1,600 percent run-up in the seat's value and consistent seven-figure trading profits.
While his success has enabled him to buy a 4,500-square-foot home in Chicago's trendy Wrigleyville neighborhood and a scenic lake house in southwestern Michigan not far from his hometown of Flint, the walk-on Wolverine seems prouder of the fact that he has been able to follow in the footsteps of Cahnman and mentor other traders.
"My youngest brother was the first one to get in, and he started to do well," Petterson says. "Then my other brothers said, 'It looks like you guys are having fun -- we want to try this out.' So from there, I took some of their friends in and taught them how to trade, too. Now I've brought six people into the business."
your kidding right? maybe you meant 2500 which is still low