R. Conrad Leslie

Conrad Leslie (born R. Conrad Leslie Jr.; 1923) was identified by The New York Times as the most widely read private crop forecaster in agribusiness and a "market maverick".[1] His monthly corn, soybean, and wheat, production estimates were of such interest to food people as to be quickly distributed around the world by Reuters, Dow Jones, and other news services. Interest in his daily price interpretations and daily market observations came from brokers and their clients at five successive Member Firms of The New York Stock Exchange: F. I. DuPont, Thomson McKinnon, Bache & Co., E.F. Hutton and ADM Investors Services.[2]

Early life

Conrad Leslie was born in Springfield, Ohio, and raised in Xenia, Ohio.[3] Before World War II, Leslie studied in the pre-med program at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. During the war, at age 21, Conrad became a B-24 bomber pilot and flew 35 missions over Germany. For this, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with three clusters.[4]

When he returned to school, he felt too old to stay on the pre-med track and switched to banking and finance. While At Miami University, Conrad became a member of the Alpha Chapter of Beta Theta Pi.[5]

Finance career

After graduating in 1947, Leslie became a salesman for Procter & Gamble. When Merrill Lynch announced it would be starting a program to bring Wall Street to the rest of the country, Leslie quickly joined the program. He qualified for Merrill Lynch broker training and after a year of study on Wall Street was assigned to its Columbus office.[6] There he became impatient with the dormant stock market. A greater challenge was the daily price activity in the grain futures market. Also, there was a need to educate farmers on how to hedge their crops.

Leslie moved to Chicago and there, during his fifty years in the business world, appraised the overnight news and then wrote a pre-opening market letter to the brokers at four different New York Stock Exchange Member firms.[6]

Leslie's collection of market wisdom and experiences was presented to the financial world via his book Conrad Leslie's Guide for Successful Speculation, Stocks, Commodities, Gold. The Chicago Tribune's Financial Editor presented a series of excerpts from this book for ten Sundays.[7]

In 1961, he felt that the first-of-the-month crop production farmer-based estimates issued by the United States Department of Agriculture on the 10th of the month were too delayed to enable efficient agribusiness marketing decisions. He developed his own faster released production estimates from card reports received from 3,000 grain elevator managers.[8]

At the request of the Nixon White House, and recommendation from Senator Hubert Humphrey, he conducted a special survey to identify the size of the probably U.S. wheat harvest before the Russian wheat sale was granted by Washington. His presented Supply and Demand projection indicated the approaching U.S. harvest would permit the sale.[9]

Back when gold was priced at $35 an ounce, Leslie noted the French were taking our gold from Fort Knox. Through his writings to 2,000 elevator managers and regular farmland press, radio, and television interviews, he was persistently among those who called on Congress to pass a bill that would allow Americans to own gold. President Nixon, with support of Senator Jacob K. Javits and Congressman Phil Crane, lifted the ban on August 15, 1975.[10]

Legacy

At his 40-year anniversary as a member of the Chicago Board of Trade, he was awarded a special plaque by the Board of Trade. When he retired at age 78, on behalf of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Senators Lugar and Harkin thanked him via letter for his 40 years of service to American Agribusiness. The City of Xenia recently selected him to be a citizen of the year. Miami University allowed him to erect an inspirational Beta Plaque on its campus, which reads, “To think that in such a place, I led such a life.”[11]

Works

References

  1. ↑ "BUSINESS PEOPLE; Crop Forecaster Is Market Maverick". The New York Times. 1983-09-19. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-02-25.
  2. ↑ "Jim Wyckoff on the Markets". www.jimwyckoff.com. Retrieved 2017-03-06.
  3. ↑ "Xenia educators' group to induct 5 into Hall of Honor". 2006-01-26.
  4. ↑ "Jim Wyckoff on the Markets". www.jimwyckoff.com. Retrieved 2017-03-06.
  5. ↑ "Famous Business Betas". South Bay/Long Beach Beta Alumni Association. 2013-04-28. Retrieved 2017-02-25.
  6. 1 2 1946-, Bernstein, Jacob, (1994-01-01). Market masters : how successful traders think, trade and invest and how you can too!. Dearborn Financial Pub. ISBN 9780793105878. OCLC 891955459.
  7. ↑ "A New Guide for Successful Investing (June 21, 1970)". Retrieved 2017-02-25.
  8. ↑ "Forecaster Can Name That Tune". tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Retrieved 2017-02-25.
  9. ↑ Newsweek. Newsweek. 1980.
  10. ↑ "Executive Order 6102". Wikipedia. 2017-02-07.
  11. ↑ "Beta Plaque". http://miamioh.edu/student-life/_files/images/greek-life/walking-tour/aopi-beta-plaq.jpg. External link in |website= (help)

Conrad Leslie

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