Let's go back and fill in some of your trading history. Where did you go after you decided to give up on being a floor trader? I got a call from Amos Hostetter, who had befriended me at Shearson. At the time, he was also trading some
money for Commodities Corporation. Amos told me that I would be well advised to consider joining Commodities
Corporation as a trader.
At the time, their theory was that they were going to hire all these great econometricians to be traders. They
had people like Paul Samuel-son on the board. They brought up the idea of hiring me at a meeting. The first question
was, "What articles has he written; in what journals has he been published?" I had a B. A. in liberal arts and that was
it. The punch line was, "He just trades." Everybody thought that was very funny.
But weren't they in business to make money trading? They didn't think it was possible to really make money unless you had a Ph.D. But Amos convinced them to
give me a chance. I believe I was the first non-Ph.D. trader they had ever hired. They started me out with $30,000 in
August 1974. After about ten years, I had turned that account into $80 million. Those were some very good years.
Did you multiply the original $30,000 into $80 million, or did they add money along the way?
After the first few years, they gave me another $100,000 to trade. After that time, they were always taking
money out. In those years, they were in an expansionary phase, and they taxed the traders 30 percent a year to pay
for their expenses.
So you had to make 30 percent a year to keep your account level. You must have had some incredible return years, given the growth of your account—particularly under that handicap. I was making at least 100 percent a year for years and years.
What was your best year? My best year must have been 1979. It was an incredible year. I caught gold when it went up to over $800.
