We at Attain are truly sad to report the passing of Mike Swinford. Co-founder of Rosetta Capital Management and futures market guru of over 30 years, Swinford has long been an asset to the managed futures space, with a resume boasting involvement with names like Heinold, Saul Stone & Company, Balfour Maclaine, Kottke, and others. Rosetta, founded with partner Jim Green, has been on our list of recommended CTAs for over three years.

But a list of titles and dates doesn’t quite do Swinford justice. Raised in the northern farmlands of Indiana, Swinford- or “Swinnie” as those who knew him would affectionately call him- grew up around the very commodities he would come to trade, running the family farm for five years after his father passed away. When the opportunity to start trading the crops he’d been cultivating came up, he jumped at it.

Without a dime to his name, he moved to Chicago to make his own way, where his extensive knowledge of agricultural and livestock markets quickly gained him a reputation as a leading expert in the futures space. As his partner Green puts it, “Truth be told… Swinny was one of three people who really understood hogs contracts, which led to him playing a major role in the restructuring of lean hogs contracts in recent years.”

And he wasn’t one to squander his knowledge. Over the years, Swinford would continuously take newcomers under his wing, giving countless traders their start with the support they needed to succeed.

Those who knew him knew he lived to trade, but there was much more to him than his futures industry prowess. Described by Jim Green as “a real life version of Yosemite Sam”, Swinford was short in stature with a larger than life presence and the biggest heart you could imagine. He had a passion for sports, cars, and all things Purdue University, in addition to a zest for life that he passed along to his daughter and three sons.

Green will continue without Swinford at Rosetta, and wants to reassure all current and potential clients that the health of the program is not in jeopardy. Today though, we want to ask that you put your thoughts of investing and money to the side- if only momentarily- and join us in toasting the life of a man the futures industry will sorely miss.

Here’s to you, Mike.