This Tom Fowler/Chronicle article (also see later report here) reports on the beginning of the latest in the series of criminal trials nicknamed “the trader cases” among the Houston defense bar involving Houston-based natural gas traders who allegedly manipulated natural gas trading indexes that are used to value billions of dollars in gas contracts and derivatives. The defendants are former El Paso Corp traders Jim Brooks, Wesley Walton and James Pat Phillips, who face 49 charges of conspiracy, false reporting and wire fraud. The trial of this particular trader case looks as if it will last about two months.