Trader Monthly 100 Top Earners
You needed to have made $50 million in 2006 just to gain admission to this list. You needed $1 billion in annual comp to crack the Top 5. Behold capitalism’s ultimate honor roll — the fourth annual Trader Monthly 100.
traderdaily.com
Name City Firm Age Est. Income
John Arnold Houston Centaurus Energy 33 $1.5-2B
James Simons East Setaucket, New York Renaissance Technologies Corp. 68 $1.5-$2B
Eddie Lampert Greenwich, Connecticut ESL Investments 44 $1-1.5B
T. Boone Pickens Dallas BP Capital 78 $1B-1.5
Stevie Cohen Stamford, Connecticut SAC Capital Advisors 50 $1B
Stephen Feinberg New York Cerberus Capital 47 $800-900M
Paul Tudor Jones Greenwich, Connecticut Tudor Investment Corp. 53 $700-800M
Bruce Kovner New York Caxton Associates 62 $700-800M
Israel Englander New York Millennium Management 58 $600-700M
David Shaw New York D.E. Shaw & Co. 55 $600-700M
April/May 2007
John Arnold
City: Houston
Firm: Centaurus Energy
Age: 33
In a clash of the titans that is likely to be remembered for years to come,John Arnold took on Amaranth’s Brian Hunter last year in a battle over the direction of natural-gas prices. Hunter, the bull, got the horns when prices — along with his ability to trade out of the supremely dark corner into which he had painted himself — weakened in the summer. Arnold, formerly of Enron, squeezed his foe like a laundress wringing out a wet tube sock.
In the end,Arnold and his team of 10 traders — including right- hand man Michael Maggi and natural-gas guru Bill Perkins — walked away from the dustpile with a mountain of cash. Amaranth was wiped off the map.
Arnold claimed the bulk of the profits. He guided Centaurus to gaudy returns (on an estimated $2billion in assets) of 317 percent before fees. Apart from one “lousy”year (only 178 per- cent in 2005), the fund has always finished above 200 per- cent since inception in 2002.
Centaurus’s fee structure is 3-and-30. About half the fund is Arnold’s own money. He is the sole owner of the firm. And — good gosh almighty, what a year — he even got hitched to a beautiful Houston lawyer.
“Last year, it all came down to natural gas,” says one trader familiar with Arnold’s bonanza. “Some people had one idea about what it would do; others backed a different scenario. The bottom line is that a whole lot of money changed hands. When you start hearing from other traders that people are selling bonds just to meet margin, that’s when you know that some positions are too big and it’s all over.”
Arnold declined to comment on our income estimates, as did Centaurus’s Perkins, though Perkins shared his views on why a trading bounty is such a beautiful thing. “You ask a big CEO what he makes, and it’s a huge number, but it’s all tied up in stock and options. Traders get paid in cash. It’s liquid. It’s real. You can go, ‘Here, look,’ and slap someone across the face with it.”
Given Arnold’s record 2006 — the largest sum, we believe, anyone has ever earned in one year — a slap like that just might land someone in intensive care.
Estimated Income: $1.5 billion – $2 billion |
