- Bill Lipschutz
Bill Lipschutz is a
foreign exchange market (forex) trader and the co-founder and Director of Portfolio Management atHathersage Capital Management .Early Life and Education
Lipschutz was born and raised in Farmingdale,
New York . He earned outstanding grades throughout junior high and high school. One of his favorite subjects was math. Lipschutz had an interest in tennis and became an avid tennis player.Citation
last =Barber ( S.T. HE DESPERATELY NEEDS.I'D SUGGEST " SWEENEY TODD")
first =Andrew
author-link =
last2 =
first2 =
author2-link =
title =Hall of Fame : Married to the Market
newspaper =Trader Daily magazine
pages =50
year =2006
date =
url =http://www.atrader.com/articles1.html ]Lipschutz attended
Cornell University and earned aBachelor's degree inFine Arts from theirArchitectural Design program after five years. He simultaneously enrolled in business classes and earned an MBA in finance in 1982 from theJohnson School of Management , also at Cornell University.Fact|date=February 2008Early career
Lipschutz’ career as a forex trader may have started by accident. While at Cornell University, Lipschutz inherited $12,000 worth of stock after his grandmother’s death.cite book
last = Schwager
first = Jack D.
authorlink = Jack D. Schwager
title = The New Market Wizards
publisher = Wiley; New Ed edition
date = 1995
location = Part 2
id = ISBN 0-471-13236-5 ] In his inheritance, there were over 100 different stocks in numerous locations. It cost Lipschutz a substantial sum in fees in order to liquidate and consolidate therisk capital into one location.While attending school, he began investing the risk capital in his free time. He would spend hours in the library, researching and reading everything possible regarding the market. This research increased his interest in
financial trading , and his portfolio was eventually worth close to $250,000. The great success was however short lived, as the risk capital was virtually blown with one bad decision and a turn on the market. Lipschutz considered the loss a valuable learning experience to apply to any future investments. Through his college career, Lipschutz became more interested in the stock trading and continued to pursue it with success, while leaving his architectural degree behind.During the time spent at Cornell, he met his wife, Lynelle Jones, who was working for economist
Henry Kaufman as aresearch assistant . Lipschutz interned for Kaufman andSalomon Brothers before graduating in 1982. He joined Salomon Brothers as a full time employee in May 1982.Career
During a Salomon Brothers training program Lipschutz was pulled aside and asked to be a part of the newly formed Foreign Exchange (or forex trading or FX for short) Department. Salomon Brothers created a team of their brightest traders, came up with a workable plan for learning currency trading and hit the market running.
The foreign exchange markets took off about the same time Salomon Brothers were jumping into the market. Lipschutz became a powerhouse with the
Philadelphia Stock Exchange , where the majority of forex trading took place. At the peak of his career, Lipschutz had 50% of all the currency option volume on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange and 80% of all open interest option.Fact|date=February 2008 He was considered to be amongst the top five of all forex traders worldwide.Fact|date=February 2008 By 1985, Lipschutz was pulling in $300 million per year for Salomon Brothers.cite news
last =Patel
first =Alpesh B.
title =The Mind of a Trader: Trading with Other People's Money
pages =Volume 8, No. 2
publisher =Commodity Research Bureau
date =1999
url =http://www.crbtrader.com/trader/v08n02/mindoftrader.asp
access-date=2007-02-18]Lipschutz was the principal trader for Salomon Brothers’ proprietary foreign exchange account from 1984 until he left in June 1990. In 1988, he was appointed a Director of Salomon Brothers, heading the
Global Foreign Exchange Options Group and theNew York Foreign Exchange Trading Desk . In 1989 he was named the Managing Director and Global Head of Foreign Exchange.cite web
title =About Hathersage
publisher =Hathersage
date =2007
url =http://www.hathersage.com/hathersage/wlipschutz.html
accessdate =2007-03-06]Despite his enormous successes, Lipschutz left Salomon Brothers. He felt they were becoming too large and were losing their appeal as a cultural institution. He opted for
early retirement . His retirement did not last long.Currency trading was becoming bigger and more profitable than bonds or stocks, and Lipschutz took it on.Fact|date=February 2008Briefly in 1990 Lipschutz went to work as the President and CEO for the
North Tower Group , a subsidiary of theMerrill Lynch Corporation . Then in 1991 he foundedRowayton Capital Management , an asset and management firm where he was the President and CEO until 1995.In 1995, with former Cornell classmates Lipschutz formed
Hathersage , a currency hedge fund manager company where he is the Principal and Director of Portfolio Management. The company, a $200 million dollar company, manages only fourteen investors. It is run out of his home, and the homes of several of his employees. Together with his friends, and his wife, there are seven employees total. Each has a very specific role in the company and its day to day operations to make it successful.Citation
last= Avery
first=Helen
date=August
year=2006
title= How Lipschutz downsized to bigger things
periodical=Euromoney
url= http://www.hathersage.com/fx/news/060801_bigger_things.html
access-date= 2007-02-18]Awards & Recognition
Lipschutz was inducted into the
Trader Monthly Hall of Fame in October 2006.Fact|date=February 2008Lipschutz has been featured in two print books about exceptional market traders. The first was "The New Market Wizards: Conversations with America’s Top Traders" by Jack D. Schwager. Written in 1992, it features several of the top market traders from the 1980s and 1990s. The second was written by Alpesh B. Patel in 1998.
References
External links
* [http://www.hathersage.com/hathersage/wlipschutz.html Official Site Biography]
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