Nowadays the Internet is full of stories of ups and downs, successes and disappointments in the Forex market. One can find a few dozens of such stories that fit every taste. But you have hardly heard the incredible story of astonishingly rich, a genius and a pioneer of commodity trading, Richard Dennis.
Dennis’ story is the type of stuff for trading legends that can still fire the engines of aspiring traders today. This guy was around 23 years old and he was reported to have borrowed $1,600 and turned it into $200 million in about 10 years trading commodities. By the time he was 26 years old, he was already a millionaire trader.
So called “Prince of the Pit” was born on the South Side of Chicago in 1949 in quite poor Irish-catholic family, where only father worked as utilities cleaner. Dennis became an order runner on the trading floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange at age 17. A few years later, he began trading for his own account at the MidAmerica Commodity Exchange, an entry-level floor where "mini" contracts were traded. To circumvent a rule requiring traders to be at least twenty-one years of age, he worked as his own runner, and hired his father, who traded in his stead in the pit. That’s how he got his moniker.