John Douglas Arnold

John Douglas Arnold (* 1974 ) was first a natural gas trader at the energy company Enron . After its collapse in 2002, he launched his own company, Centauron Advisers . In 2012 he ended his commercial activities at the age of 38 years and founded the Foundation Laura and John Arnold Foundation to which he (2019 version) only took care of until today.

Career

Arnold grew up in a middle class family in Dallas, the younger of two brothers. His father was a lawyer and his mother an accountant. His father died when Arnold was 16 years old. In 1995, after 3 years, he graduated from Vanderbilt University with a degree in mathematics and economics. He is a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity. After college, he began his career as an oil analyst with Enron , but was soon promoted to a supporting trader. In 1996, after Jeff Bussan's departure, he moved to the Natural Gas Office and traded natural gas derivatives. Using the new Internet- based trading network, EnronOnline , he made $ 3/4 billion for Enron in 2001 and received a bonus of $ 8 million. One of his former colleagues called him "the king of natural gas."

When Enron collapsed in 2002, he started Centaurus with the previous year's bonus. His company had $ 3 billion in assets under management in 2006 .

His workforce includes several well-known energy traders, including former Enron CEO Greg Whalley, as well as Bill Perkins , Mike Maggi, and Conrad Goerl, formerly with MotherRock .

According to Arnold, after Enron collapsed, there was general disclosure of the (credit risk) among energy companies. The more creditworthy were less willing to do business with the less creditworthy. Therefore, the less creditworthy found less trading partners, even if they still had to hedge against the price risks in their business. With the exception of the largest, hedge funds were not active in the over-the-counter trading market, while others were reluctant to lend in this area. ( "After Enron collapsed, there was a general revaluation of credit risk among energy companies. The better credits were less willing to take on the lesser credits as counter parties. So the lesser credits found themselves with fewer counter parties willing to trade with them, even though they still needed to hedge the pricing risks in their business. Hedge funds previously had not been involved in the over-the-counter market, except for the very largest, because the other participants were reluctant to grant credit to that type of entity . " )

During Amaranth Advisors' breakdown in 2005, it was named one of the larger companies and achieved a 150% return in 2005.

At an energy conference, Arnold stated that he is looking to place bets on a market that is biased ... We wonder if we can identify what is pushing the price down in the market at its unfair value and how we can get back at its fair value Can bring back value. ( "to place bets on a market that he determines is 'biased' ... [W] e ask ourselves can we identify what is forcing a market to price a product at an unfair value, and then, what will push it back to fair value. " ) Arnold also referred to the speculative taking place in the unregulated over-the-counter trading Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and NYMEX 's Clearport Trading:" The trade never went away ... what changed it is the non-commercial interest type. .. because there has never been as much interest from investors as there is today. "(" Trading never went away ... [W] has changed is the non-commercial type of interest ... [B] ecause of this there has never been as much investor interest ... as there is today. " )

In August 2008 it acquired approximately 10% of the shares in the National Coal Corporation (NCOC).

In August 2009, after making a profit of nearly $ 8 billion the year before, John D. Arnold gave one of his rare public speeches to the CFTC (US Commodity Futures Trading Commission ) in which he opposed limits on financial trading positions, but spoke out in favor of the limits on physical energy futures because of their early exhaustion. As Arnold told the CFTC: "I try to buy things whenever they're trading below what [our] analysis shows to be fair value and sell things whenever our analysis shows that the forward curve is higher than our analysis of fair value."

In 2011, Arnold and his wife donated $ 100 million to a variety of purposes, including establishing the Laura and John Arnold Foundation .

At 38, he closed the Centaurus Energy Master Fund and retired to devote himself to his foundation, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation and his family, wife and three children. Their funds are to be used to analyze major problems in society for which there are no simple solutions. The Laura and John Foundation focuses on three main areas of responsibility: criminal justice , education, and state accountability. The erinproject is supposed to coordinate the school development. Funding for projects in 2012 was $ 423 million.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} New York Times: "CORPORATE CONDUCT: THE TRADER; Enron Trader Had a Year To Boast of, Even If ..." By DAVID BARBOZA July 09, 2002
2. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ^ ^{A b} New York Times , "Energy Trading, Post-Enron," January 15, 2006
4. ↑ CNN Money , "The wunderkind gas trader ( Memento of the original of 13 December 2013, Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link is automatically inserted and not yet tested Please review the original and archive link under. Instructions and then remove this notice. November 24, 2009  
5. ↑ [1]  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Wall Street Journal Online , "Trading on the Enron Mystique," Nov. 16, 2006  
6. ^ [2] Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , "The energy-trading high wire", March 21, 2006
7. ↑ [3] "The Tipping Point: OTC Energy Clearing Takes Off", January 18, 2005
8. ↑ [4] , "Smart trades that made this a good year for some", December 20, 2006
9. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from January 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , [5] (PDF; 540 kB), "The Role of Market Speculation in Rising Oil and Gas Prices: A Need To Put The Cop Back On The Beat"  
10. ↑ Houston Business Journal, "Centaurus scoops up National Coal shares," Aug. 29, 2008
11. ↑ Telis Demos: The Wunderkind Gas Trader. John Arnold has made billions as an energy-trading phenom. But the rules of his game are about to change. In: CNN Money . Turner Broadcasting System , November 24, 2009, accessed April 23, 2019 . 
12. ↑ [6] (PDF; 139 kB) "John D. Arnold's CFTC (US Commodity Futures Trading Commission) speech"
13. ^ "The Chronicle of Philanthropy"
14. ^ "The Chronicle of Philanthropy"
15. ↑ Houston billionaire trader John Arnold retiring at 38: He says it's 'time to pursue other interests' , Houston Chronicle, May 2, 2012
16. ↑ The Foundation of the Arnold couple ( Memento of the original from May 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
17. ↑ http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/prnewswire/press_releases/Texas/2012/06/26/DC30943
18. ↑ Donations for research into problem areas; Yahoo online
19. ^ "The New Science of Giving," WSJ.Money, Wall Street Journal May 17, 2013