Labeled as, “one of the most successful traders of the last 40 years” by Forbes, Blair Hull has also been profiled in The New Market Wizards, by Jack Schwager.
Before his trading career launched, Blair spent 5 years as a serious Blackjack player in the 70’s. Taking his winnings to the Pacific Exchange, he proceeded to trade mispriced options, and from there founded Hull Trading, a top market-making firm, in 1985. At the height of its success, Hull Trading was active on 28 exchanges in nine countries. And in 1999, Goldman Sachs acquired the firm for $531 million dollars.
Hull is now the founder of Hull Investments, the parent company of Hull Trading Asset Allocation, as well as proprietary firm, Ketchum Trading.
This interview covers Blair’s career and his experiences as a trader, his strong belief that great things happen in team settings, and why everything depends on having an edge.
What’s Covered in This Interview:
- Before his trading career, Blair played Blackjack 50 days a year, was initiated into a Blackjack team, and eventually got an advantage in the game.
- Once banned from casinos, Blair developed models to trade mispriced options on the exchange floor and eventually won big in the ’87 crash.
- Why Blair believes great things happen in teams, his objectives when he found Hull Trading, and how they came to make the innovative decision to drive for automation.
- The strategies deployed at Blair trading, why they hired non-traditional traders, and the reason Goldman Sachs eventually acquired the firm.
- What is market timing, what does it mean for traders, and the huge part it plays in his actively managed ETF, Hull Tactical Funds ($HUTS).
- Blair defines what having an edge really means, how to reduce randomness through a systematic approach, and other wisdom for developing traders.
Links and Resources:
- Beat the Dealer by Edward Thorpe – This book by the father of card counting gave Blair his advantage when playing Blackjack.
- A Practitioner’s Defense of Return Predictability by Blair Hull & Xiao Qiao – You can read the paper Blair references on the Social Science Research Network.
- HullInvest.com – Get all the information you could want on Blair, Hull Tactical Funds, Ketchum Trading and the Hull Family Foundation.
- @BlairHull – You can follow Blair on Twitter and share your thoughts on this episode with him.
- Technician – For professional-grade charts and technical analysis tools everywhere you go, use Technician!
