Powers: building from the ground up.(Trade Profile)

Pete Powers. CEO of Cranwood Capital Management. was always interested in trading, but when he got what he thought was his big break in the institutional fixed income department at Dean Witter Reynolds, it turned out to be an order desk job. But it was there he met a broke in the 10-year note pit at the Chicago Board of Trade. "He offered me an opportunity to move from Cleveland to Chicago and learn how to trade for him," Powers says.

Powers worked three months as a runner and three months as a clerk before leasing a seat, but it was this early experience he credits for his eventual success. "[When I was on the floor] I made sure that I learned every aspect of [trading]," Powers says. Powers struggled to learn his new craft in 1997 before getting …