Indiana Grain Company, LLC

Posted: 03/15/11

By: tomgrisafi

Take a good look at the image to your right.

That's a nice old-fashioned cot parked squarely in front of my computer screens in the basement of my home-based trading office.

It's far from glamorous. And it's even further from comfortable. But there are nights when the risks and potential rewards are much too great to sleep through.

I share this image with you not to promote Cabelas but to illustrate what it can take to survive in today's markets, let alone profit while navigating them.

Today, successful trading has every bit as much to do with dedication as it does talent. Like never before in our industry, the new era of 24/7 global electronic markets (a topic we've discussed in great detail lately) demands a heightened level of participation and observance.

Last Friday when corn made a limit move before the sun had come up and most brokers had brewed their first pot of coffee, an entire world of million-dollar opportunities came and went. For this very reason, we're seeing a dynamic shift in the names and faces that are most successfully monetizing these markets. And it's tremendously gratifying to see hard workers rewarded for their efforts across a more level than ever playing field.

Making the most money you possibly can from these markets, indeed, requires a whole new level of dedication. And given the great many friends and acquaintances I've made after-hours on Twitter, I realize that a lot of traders are quickly discovering this reality. And they're cashing in on it every day. Along the way, they're lending credence to the famous quote from Elbert Hubbard: "Folks who never do any more than they get paid for, never get paid for any more than they do."