Hi all,
An aspect of commodities trading that I've really admired during my time in the industry has been the continuous presence of guys who stay well past the point at which they could comfortably retire, especially on the physical side. A few of the PMs at my current shop who've previously excelled running energy desks at prominent HFs prompted me to think about the topic, as did some G&O Merchants from Lansing/Anderson's that I met back in Overland Park as well. It was legends like Marc Rich continuing to trade independently after Glencore and Trafigura spun off, Ian Taylor and Claude Dauphin working through terminal illnesses, Andy Hall running Astenbeck until 2017, and Steve/Steve/Guy at Hartree continuing to run the firm into their 60/70s, among others, that really drilled it home and I would really like to hear how you guys with a greater depth of experience feel about working well past the point of being able to leave without any financial concerns. I understand that it's a matter of personality, as guys like John Arnold and Neal Driscoll left the game after massive success (albeit after moving to the paper side) while relatively young, but would certainly appreciate any personal insights.
Best,
BW
Can’t really comment, but I’d imagine it’s partly selection bias - those who really enjoy trading will be more engaged and spend more time on it, increasing the chance of being a ‘superstar’.
Truly, most macro traders go on to build businesses and run family offices. Very few just retire to go golfing all day you gotta do something with your time. All the people you named are business builders and I would say they did not really trade later in their careers instead hired the right people.
John Arnold similarly walked away from running large financial risk directly but in the last few years has been investing in micro power plants, transmission and of course to solve education. Along with staking his friends, two of the largest commodity funds used to work for John.
But then again PTJ and Druckenmiller are the same with family offices.
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