“Up-before-the-sun,” fast-paced, all-consuming jobs have always appealed to Dennis Kissler. In fact, he wouldn’t know a day off if it looked him square in the face—and that’s exactly how he likes it.
Kissler, now SVP of trading at BOK Financial®, grew up in western Oklahoma, working on a cattle ranching & farming operation from as early as he can remember.
“I’m currently doing what I’ve always wanted to do,” he said. “But it was trading cattle and grain futures that got me started.”
His family hedged cattle and grain in the ‘70s and ‘80s and that was all it took: he was hooked, and it jump-started his career. He went to Oklahoma State University for a degree in marketing/ finance.
Then Kissler worked as a runner on the CME Exchange for two summers and spent some time roughnecking on drilling rigs in Western Oklahoma. He briefly worked for an ATM company before deciding their attempts to relocate him to California weren’t for him.
With all that experience under his belt, Dennis decided, “I want to work on the trading floor at the CME Exchange in full time.”
“So, I did that,” he said simply, and went to Chicago.
On the floor
He started off renting but ultimately purchased a commodity seat membership and remained on CME exchange trading floor for 12 years.
“I was one of the guys who used to jump up and down and yell and scream—like you see in the movies—which is why my voice sounds like this today,” he said. “But around that time, a partner and I started a brokerage company because we saw a huge opportunity.”
There was a lot of commodity business to be done, Kissler recalled.
“Our focus was on Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas because of the livestock and grain,” he said. “Then the oil complexes came on the crude oil first and natural gas second. And we were kind of the only game in town. Banks weren’t really involved in derivatives or futures trading yet, so we filled the gap.”
The hours were long and the stakes were high, but Dennis wouldn’t have had it any other way. Then BOK Financial came onto his radar.
“When the bank first started in the derivatives business, they used my brokerage firm,” he said. “Once the business got bigger and bigger, I came over to the bank and saw that they had a good product that was rapidly growing.”
Eventually, BOK Financial had an opening and in 2006 Kissler sold his shares in the brokerage company and jumped at the chance to join the team.
“At that time, they were trading all in oil and gas, but they’d also just started an agriculture trading division. We were also one of the bigger Oklahoma ag lending banks in the late ‘90s,” he said, adding that he felt right at home.
From the minors to the majors
Today, Kissler is very proud of the team and the business they’ve cultivated. “If you compare it to baseball, we went straight from a Class A minor league into the major league,” Kissler recalled. “We skipped the whole middle part. Now the size is institutional. We’re one of the larger true energy hedging desks in the United States and by far the largest regional bank trading/hedging desks.”
And that’s something the whole team can be proud of, he said.
But those on the team know Kissler has been an instrumental part of that success.
Brad Steele, chief operating officer for BOK Financial Securities, echoed Dean’s sentiment. “Over the course of my more than 15 years at the company, Dennis has been a joy to work with. His enthusiasm is infectious, and he truly loves people. Dennis’s work ethic combined with genuine care for his colleagues embodies the culture that I love, and we strive for at the company.”
After hours
And after 39 years of marriage, Kissler’s wife Renee knows better than anyone that he doesn’t understand the concept of time off work.
“Hobbies? My main hobby is trading,” he said. “So, if I’m not at work, I’m constantly watching the markets There’s always something going on.”
But, he said, occasionally Renee insists he actually take a break. When that happens, travel is at the top of their list.
Never one to fully relax, Kissler added, “We started traveling to the same places pretty often, so I got into real estate as a hobby. There was an investment group at first, but once I got the hang of it, I broke away and started doing my own thing. We buy distressed properties, renovate them, rent them and eventually sell them. Basically, another form of trading.”
Kissler is the most offline, though, when he’s on the water. Any water sport will do but jet skis are his favorite.
Passing it on
However, as much as Dennis loves trading (in all forms), he wanted a different path for his son Austin, who is turning 30 this year.
“I kept him away from this business; it's not for everyone," Kissler said. “Working for the bank is different—it's a whole other aura—but real commodity trading is speculative, extremely risky and high stress. There is a lot of personal risk involved, and not everyone can handle that. I didn’t want that for him.”
For those who do want to move forward in this industry, he doesn’t hesitate to share what has worked for him: surround yourself with people whom you believe have different skill sets than you and that can add value to what you’re trying to accomplish. Kissler recommends getting to know many different kinds of people.
“Even as a younger person, I asked a lot of questions, and I still do. When I was trying to get into the petroleum engineering side when I was in school, I went to work on the drilling rigs in western Oklahoma and must have asked those guys 1,000 questions. One guy even pulled me aside and asked if I was doing an investigation on them because I was asking so many questions,” he laughed. “But it was just because that was the thing they knew best—and I knew I had a lot to learn.”
“Maybe it wouldn’t surprise people at this point, but I live and breathe this business. I think this is something I was born to do. People say you should leave work at work when you go home at the end of the day, but it’s impossible when the work is in your blood.”- Dennis Kissler, SVP of trading at BOK Financial
Top-of-page image: Dennis Kissler recently presented at the BOK Financial Northeast Energy Summit.
. © 2024 BOKF, NA.