John J. Lothian & Company, Inc.

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John J. Lothian & Company, Inc.
Founded	2003
Headquarters	Elmhurst, Illinois, United States
Key People	John J. Lothian, Sarah Rudolph, Jeff Bergstrom, Nancy Ashburn, Patrick Lothian
Employees	5-10
Products	financial news, market intelligence, video production, industry education
Twitter	@JohnLothian
LinkedIn	Profile
Facebook	Page
Website	www.JohnLothian.com

John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. (JJLCO) is a privately held financial media, information, and professional services firm specializing in market intelligence, electronic trading, news editorial, video production, and industry education within the global futures, options, and securities sectors. The company produces financial news content, educational media, and consulting solutions for participants including exchanges, proprietary trading firms, asset managers, institutional investors, and compliance officers. Operating from Elmhurst, Illinois, JJLCO manages industry resources such as John Lothian News (JLN), MarketsWiki, MarketsWiki Education, and John Lothian Productions.

Founded by longtime derivatives journalist and trader John J. Lothian, JJLCO merges media publishing, industry knowledge, and market advocacy in support of transparent price discovery and robust risk management across the derivatives value chain. The firm is known for its daily sector coverage, in-depth interviews, historical documentation, and open educational initiatives serving financial professionals, students, and new market entrants.

History

John J. Lothian incorporated John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. ("JJLCO") in November 2003, officially naming the John Lothian Newsletter as part of the new entity at the time of incorporation. The company also registered as a Commodity Trading Advisor with the National Futures Association and began operating trading programs it acquired from Defender Capital Management, Inc.

In June 2006, JJLCO partnered with financial journalist Jim Kharouf to launch and publish JLN Environmental/Energy (formerly Environmental Markets Newsletter), distributing a daily email briefing that delivered news, information, and commentary about global emissions and clean-tech markets. In July 2007, JJLCO hired Jon Matte as chief operating officer to begin work on MarketsWiki. The project was developed in secrecy until its formal launch on January 11, 2008, even operating a proxy site, WikiWhoMustNotBeNamed.com, during the pre-release phase. Kharouf joined JJLCO as editor-in-chief in the autumn of 2007 and led the MarketsWiki development team. Early contributors to MarketsWiki included Gail Osten, Laura Oatney, Sarah Rudolph, Jeff Bergstrom, Jon Matte, Steve Zwick, Robert Luke, Christine Marie Nielsen, and Doug Cameron.

Jessica Darmoni, then known as Jessica Titlebaum, joined JJLCO as an intern in 2009 and was later hired full-time, eventually holding roles such as senior vice president, head of business development, and editor-at-large. She would later leave to take a communications position at the National Futures Association.

Allan Schoenberg, then at CME Group, convinced John Lothian to adopt Twitter in 2009. Lothian and Schoenberg subsequently co-hosted an event on how traders were using Twitter, which included Jon Najarian of OptionMonster as a participant.

In 2010, Jon Matte took over the primary assembly of the John Lothian Newsletter from John Lothian after relocating to Norway. That same year, Jeff Bergstrom was appointed chief information officer. Also in 2009, Ryan Lothian joined JJLCO as head of marketing, and Chris McMahon became the initial editor of JLN Metals. The launch of JLN Metals followed NYSE Liffe’s acquisition of the Chicago Board of Trade’s precious metals futures business from CME Group, which had to divest those contracts while acquiring the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The company created the John Lothian News division in 2011, with Jim Kharouf as editor-in-chief and John Lothian as publisher. That year, JJLCO launched MarketsReformWiki and brought on Doug Ashburn to lead the project. Patrick Lothian joined as head of video production in 2011, and his work led to the creation of John Lothian Productions, the company’s custom video production division.

In January 2012, JJLCO introduced FuturesCrowd.com, a crowdsourcing initiative to improve customer confidence following the collapse of MF Global, a major futures commission merchant. In October 2013, JJLCO launched www.johnlothiannews.com, a comprehensive news platform uniting content across all its newsletters. Sarah Rudolph became managing editor of JLN, while Doug Ashburn took the title of vice president and editor-at-large.

In 2013, JJLCO also introduced the MarketsWiki Education World of Opportunity series in Chicago, featuring a TED Talk-style platform with 30 speakers across five events. Aimed at interns, college students, and newer employees, the events expanded to London, New York, and Stockholm with backing from CME Group.

In 2014, after Jon Matte left to work in Norway, Doug Ashburn was promoted to chief operating officer. John Lothian resumed primary editorial responsibilities for the John Lothian Newsletter, with contributions from team members. Ryan Lothian departed for the Cook County Forest Preserve later that year. Nancy Ashburn, Doug’s wife, joined as head of finance and administration.

Spencer Doar started as an intern in April 2015 and became associate editor that November, later editing JLN Options and helping launch a weekly options video series, “The Spread,” before joining 3Points Communications in 2018. Doug Ashburn left in 2016, and Michael Forrester, Jr. joined as videographer late that year, working on a feature about his father as his first project.

During 2016–2018, the @JohnLothian Twitter account was ranked number one or two by industry site Streeteye.com until the rankings were discontinued in 2019, when it held the number one position. John Lothian stepped down as CEO in January 2017, promoting Jim Kharouf to CEO, though Lothian reassumed the CEO role after Kharouf’s resignation in December 2017. Kharouf continued to contribute as “contributing global markets editor” through 2019.

Sarah Rudolph became head of editorial operations in April 2018 and was named editor-in-chief in 2019. Mike Forrester was promoted to producer, and Spencer Doar to editor, with Matt Raebel later succeeding Doar as options editor. During the 2018 FIA Boca Raton conference, Lothian unveiled plans for CryptoMarketsWiki.com and hired Matt Raebel and Thom Thompson to support crypto industry coverage. Suzanne Cosgrove joined as a contributing editor in 2019, later advancing to deputy managing editor in 2021, while Mike Forrester left the firm in 2020 for Gate39 Media.

Publishing

What later became the John Lothian Newsletter started as a viral marketing experiment by then-futures broker John Lothian in August of 2000, when he was the president of the electronic trading division of The Price Futures Group. Lothian started the newsletter to expand his private network at a time when single stock futures presented both a threat and an opportunity to the futures industry. It was also meant to help him market Commodity Trading Advisors he had equity raising agreements with, including Jon Matte of Defender Capital Management.

Lothian began aggregating news and sending out a single daily email with his name in the subject line to educate clients, prospects, colleagues, and others about the rapid changes that were occurring in the markets as open outcry trading was being replaced by electronic trading. Also, Lothian said Jim McNulty being named as CEO of the CME prompted him to start the newsletter. McNulty had been a mentor to Lothian when he first graduated from Purdue University, and then Lothian lost touch with him over the years.

As a result of Lothian's name in the email subject line, readers started calling the newsletter various names, including "The Lothian Report," modeled after "The Drudge Report." However, Lothian settled the name issue in 2004 when he created JJLCO and named the newsletter "John Lothian Newsletter."

In 2001, Lothian began attending the Futures Industry Association International Conference in Boca Raton, Florida, as a journalist, but also as a broker.

In 2002, Peter McKay of the Wall Street Journal wrote a story about Lothian questioning his dual role as broker and journalist. The newsletter was described a compendium of articles and commentary as the term "blogger" was not yet part of the modern vocabulary.

In 2004 Lothian traveled to Switzerland to the Burgenstock Conference of the then Swiss Futures & Options Association a journalist exclusively, though he was still a futures broker. At the end of 2003, Lothian instituted a voluntary pay basis to support his newsletter work and travels.

A year later at the Burgestock Conference, Richard Sandor suggested to Jim Kharouf that it would be good if there was a publication in the growing environmental markets like John Lothian's in derivatives. Kharouf would never get that project off the drawing board. Still, later Lothian approached him with an offer to collaborate and leverage the style and distribution of Lothian's newsletter to establish the Environmental Markets Newsletter. Lothian, with JJLCO and Kharouf, would form a partnership to publish the newsletter, which was launched in June 2006.

In the spring of 2007, Jon Matte approached Lothian and asked for a job. Matte had sold his trading system and customers to Lothian in 2004 and had left the financial markets. To hire Matte, Lothian developed the plan to build MarketsWiki. Lothian approached potential supporters of the project at the FIA Boca Raton conference in 2007 and received a positive response. At the time, mainstream media was seemingly bankrupt strategically and financially, and financial market firms needed to find replacement marketing venues to replace print newspapers. Lothian is often quoted as saying the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 was a paradigm shift for how people were going to receive information, and one of the reasons he developed MarketsWiki.

In 2006, Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, said that the Mediawiki software that ran the site was so important to mankind and civilization for the creation of knowledge bases, collaboration, and sharing that he was going to give the software away for free. Lothian would take Wales up on the offer and launch development of MarketsWiki with Matte on August 1, 2007.

MarketsWiki launched on January 11, 2008. Lothian announced the launch and the name before moderating a panel for the Securities Traders Association of Chicago's Annual MidWinter Meeting. The first year of operation, MarketsWiki generated one million page views. Lothian and the MarketsWiki Development Team would celebrate the achievement with a dinner in Chicago that included Jon Matte, who was then living in Portland, Oregon.

Sponsors from around the world were secured to support MarketsWiki, including Cboe, NYSE Euronext, Eurex, Cinnober, Patsystems, Fidessa, Trading Technologies, TradeLink and others.

After the financial crisis of 2007-08, Lothian developed the idea of a regulatory reform wiki. NYSE Liffe approached Lothian about doing something in regulation, which prompted him to launch work on MarketsReformWiki.

Subsequently, JJLCO launched JLN Metals as a daily metals update with NYSE Liffe as the sole sponsor.

Ryan Lothian was hired at the time JLN Metals was launched and brought new ideas on newsletter publishing, as Web 2.0 was the current theme. JJLCO adopted the style and technology of JLN Metals for its other newsletters and subsequently started two blogs and a bi-weekly managed futures newsletter.

The blogs were JLN Options and JLN Interest Rates. Sarah Rudolph was the first editor of JLN Options and Christine Marie Nielsen led JLN Interest Rates.

Later, the blogs were developed into daily newsletters as sponsors were found to support them.

In December 2010, JJLCO announced the launch of a seventh newsletter and blog, JLN Forex. JLN Forex was a weekly newsletter launched in January 2011, accompanied by daily blog updates.

In February of 2011, JJLCO launched MarketsReformWiki, the aggregation and news site dedicated to the global markets regulatory reform efforts.

JJLCO reorganized its brand in 2011 and renamed the news division John Lothian News.

In May of 2011, JJLCO launched MarketsWiki.tv with an interactive video series titled Questions: Exploring Financial Technology. MarketsWiki.tv was decommissioned in 2014 upon the launch of JohnLothianNews.com.

On July 9, 2012, John Lothian News broke the story of the suicide attempt by Peregrine Financial Group CEO Russell Wassendorf, Sr. and the revelation of his financial fraud using customer funds.

The failures of Peregrine Financial Group and MF Global prompted John Lothian News to publish a series of interviews under the title "Restoring Customer Confidence."

Additionally, John Lothian News launched a website called FuturesCrowd.com to crowdsource ideas on how the futures industry could recover from the collapse of a major futures commission merchant.

In October of 2013, JJLCO launched www.johnlothiannews.com, a news website featuring comprehensive content from across John Lothian News and all its newsletters. Additionally, Sarah Rudolph was named managing editor of JLN and Doug Ashburn assumed the title of vice president in addition to editor-at-large.

In late 2013, JJLCO launched MarketsWiki Education as a site to display market-related educational video and collateral materials, including the videos from the MarketsWiki Education World of Opportunity events.

In 2013, JJLCO combined the content of several newsletters into the content of the John Lothian Newsletter. JLN Options remained as the only stand alone newsletter besides the flagship John Lothian Newsletter.

In December of 2015, John Lothian endorsed Doug Bry and Ernest Jaffarian for the board of directors of the National Futures Association representing Commodity Trading Advisors and Commodity Pool Operators, rather than James Koutoulas, who Lothian had endorsed in a previous successful election for Koutoulas. Lothian labeled Koutoulas a "bombastic loose cannon" for his criticism of NFA staff and fellow NFA board members in a controversy that saw NFA board chairman Chris Hehmeyer hire the law firm of Skadden, Arps, and former CFTC General Counsel Mark Young to work on the case and to investigate the issue. Koutoulas threatened to sue Lothian for libel after Lothian wrote that Koutoulas was incapable of being trustworthy, noting he was a pretty good lawyer. Koutoulas and his Commodity Coalition collaborator John Roe lost the election, and Koutoulas did not sue Lothian. Bry and Jaffarian won the election.

Managed Futures

JJLCO was registered as a Commodity Trading Advisor from 2003 to 2012. Its trading programs dealt in a limited number of futures and options markets while allowing investors a choice of programs with minimum investment requirements as low as $15,000.

JJLCO, an Illinois corporation, was established in 2003 and registered with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as a CTA and a member of the National Futures Association (NFA) in February of 2004. JJLCO began trading client assets as of Dec. 1, 2004. It discontinued trading client funds in 2011.

In November 2004, JJLCO acquired rights to the managed futures programs of Defender Capital Management, Inc. (Defender), which began managing client assets in June of 1998. In 2006, JJLCO acquired the exclusive intellectual property rights for the trading strategies and Defender trading programs. The Defender managed futures programs acquired by JJLCO are named “Maple Sugar” and “Big ED.” JJLCO had contracted with Jon Matte to receive Big ED and Maple Sugar trading signals, position sizing, trade management, and money management instructions.

JJLCO’s Maple Sugar program traded No. 11 World Sugar futures and options on ICE Futures US and Canadian Dollar futures and options on the International Monetary Market of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. JJLCO’s Big ED program traded Eurodollar futures and options on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

The two programs employed a directional trading methodology developed to generate trade signals and incorporated risk management techniques to provide insurance against a shifting market.

External Links

• www.johnlothian.com
• www.johnlothiannews.com
• www.marketswikieducation.com
• John Lothian News LinkedIn Page
• John Lothian News YouTube Channel]
• John Lothian News Bluesky Page]