About Your Traders

James Cordier

James Cordier is President and Head Trader of Liberty Trading Group in Tampa, Florida. A commodities and options trader since 1984, he is quoted regularly on the futures markets in several national and international publications including The Wall Street Journal, Barrons Weekly, CNN Money and Reuters World News.

Mr. Cordier and his firm specialize in option writing and have developed a strategy of selling out of the money options on futures contracts that they share with clients of their brokerage.

James' study of the commodities market began at age 14 when a silver coin collection sparked his interest in silver futures. He began his career at Heinold Commodities in Milwaukee as a broker in 1984. Several years of working with commercial business enabled him to not only build a solid knowledge base of market fundamentals but also establish of network of producers and end users that remains in place today.

In 1991 James began an eight year association with Allendale, Inc. in Chicago where he began publication of his newsletter, the Cordier Report. Success at Allendale eventually led to his own branch office in St. Petersburg, FL.

In 1999, having established a solid reputation and a certain level of notoriety within the industry, James founded Liberty Trading Group.

James has been a member of the National Futures Association since 1984 and boasts an impeccable record of ethical conduct.

Despite giving market commentary to news outlets and financial websites and co-authoring The Complete Guide to Option Selling (McGraw-Hill 2005), James still works directly with most client equity and never underestimates the importance of staying in close contact with his clientele' on an individual basis.

Michael Gross

Michael Gross is director of research at Liberty Trading Group in Tampa, Florida.

After graduating from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1990 with a degree in Business Administration, he began his study of the commodities markets. His futures trading career began in 1994 when he started trading contracts in grains, precious metals and energies.

In 1996, Michael became a registered commodities broker specializing primarily in the grain and energy sectors.

In 1999, he joined Liberty Trading Group where along with James Cordier, developed various approaches to selling option premium and managing portfolios. Michael remains an active broker at Liberty Trading Group, where he authors many of the firm's research articles and assists in developing trading strategy.

Michael's published articles on the futures markets and option trading have appeared in Futures Magazine, Optionetics.com and Consensus. His market comments have been published by Bloomberg News and Futures Magazine. He co-authored the book The Complete Guide to Option Selling with James Cordier (McGraw-Hill 2005).

Michael has been a member of the National Futures Association since 1996. His philosophy in working with investors is that open and clear communication is the only way to build long term professional relationships.