Dan Vaught earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Agricultural Economics from the University of Arkansas in 1985 and early 1987, respectively. For his Masters thesis he investigated the potential earnings and risks involved in technically trading a commodity portfolio. He attended the University of Illinois as a recipient of the Jonathan Baldwin Turner fellowship in 1987 and 1988. Dan went to work for A.G. Edwards & Sons as a fundamental analyst in 1990 and took over coverage of livestock futures in late 1991. He took on the added responsibility of covering precious metals in 1997 and copper futures in early 2001. He gave up metals coverage in spring 2007 and took over coverage of the soft commodities at that time. He has routinely been cited in wire service reports and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Barron’s and various agricultural publications. In addition to having appeared on several radio programs, Dan has been interviewed on CNBC, CNN-FN and on The Nightly Business Report on PBS. After A.G. Edwards was taken over by Wachovia Corporation, he left the firm when they eliminated their in-house futures research department. He founded his own firm, Vaught Futures Insights, PLLC, in 2010, then joined Doane Advisory Services when they made him an offer he couldn’t refuse in late 2012. Along with his Doane coworkers, he joined Farm Journal Media and Pro Farmer when a merger was announced in December 2015. He generally uses fundamental analysis, the study of underlying supply and demand factors, in seeking to find market opportunities. In addition, he uses technical analysis, the study of price charts, as a method for timing turning points in the markets.
