Blair Hull

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Marson Blair Hull, Jr. (born September 3, 1942), commonly known as Blair Hull, is an American businessman and politician, notable for his attempt to win the Democratic Party nomination to serve in the United States Senate from Illinois in 2004.

He is the founder and CEO of the Hull Group, an equity option market making firm that was sold to Goldman Sachs. He is currently chairman and chief executive officer of Matlock Capital a family office.^[1]

In early media polls leading up to the March 16, 2004 primary election, Hull enjoyed a substantial lead and widespread name recognition resulting from a well-financed advertisement effort. He contributed over $28 million of his personal wealth for the campaign.

When fabricated false allegations of abuse against his ex-wife were made by the media, Hull's poll numbers dropped and he failed to win the nomination. Illinois State Senator Barack Obama later became the nominee.

Contents 1 Education 2 Career 3 Personal 4 References 5 Notes 6 External links 7 Further reading

[edit] Education

He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, his MBA from from Santa Clara University and graduated from the Harvard OPM Program.

[edit] Career

Blair spent 6 years in the Army and after graduating University.With just a $25,000 stake Blair started the Hull Trading company, developed his own option valuation model, unknowingly he used the same formula as the Black-Scholes model.^{[citation needed]}

Using computer-generated strategies he applied relative value methodology to find mispricings across all options on the Pacific Stock Exchange producing 400% returns in each of his first two years in business, and averaged approximately 50% annual returns thereafter.^{[citation needed]}

In 1980 he worked as a market maker on the floor of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) where he successfully continued to apply his valuation techniques, eventually being named one of the CBOE’s first Designated Primary Market Makers.

In 1985, Blair founded Hull Trading Company in Chicago, his team was made up of outstanding scientist with Phds in investing, science and mathematics. This multi-disciplinary group designed and implemented a steady stream of systematic innovations that combined trading acumen with state-of-the-art technological innovations and quantitative models.

This approach used computerized trading to capture thousands of very short-term stock and options mispricings each day while continually calculating portfolio-wide risk on a real-time basis. Hull Trading Company became one of the world’s premier market-making firms and was acquired by Goldman, Sachs & Co. in 1999 for $531 million. Shortly thereafter, Blair Hull formed his current company, Matlock Capital.

[edit] Personal

A month before the primary elections a news story broke out regarding his divorce from his ex-wife. She had sought a restraining order against him during their divorce in 1998. Hull tried to keep the divorce records sealed, but pressure from journalists and his opposing candidates forced him to release them.

The papers claimed that his ex-wife alleged that during a physical fight between them he had threatened to kill her, this led to his arrest for battery, however no charges were ever filed.^[2]

[edit] References

Fishman, Ted C.. "Dead Men Trading", Esquire, Feb 1, 2000. Retrieved on 2006-08-19.

Kane, Kate A.. "Risky Business, Sound Thinking", Fast company, April 1997, pp. 85. Retrieved on 2006-08-19.

Berkowitz, Jeff. "Interviewed on Public Affairs", Chicago Tribune, May 29, 2003. Retrieved on 2006-08-19.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Kane, Kate A.. "Risky Business, Sound Thinking", Fast company, April 1997, pp. 85. Retrieved on 2006-08-19.
2. ^ Voegeli, William (March 19, 2004). The Rise and Fall of Blair Hull. Writings. The Claremont Institute. Retrieved on 2006-08-19.

[edit] External links

Matlock Capital (August 2006). Retrieved on 2006-08-19.

Hull family Foundation (August 2006). Retrieved on 2006-08-19.

Blair Hull (Aug 2006). Retrieved on 2006-08-19.

Blair in Books (Aug 2006). Retrieved on 2006-08-19.

• Serves on the Board

[edit] Further reading

Schwager, Jack D. (1994). The New Market Wizards. Collins. ISBN 0-88730-667-5. 

Blake, Rich, Imogen Rose-Smith. "The 40 greatest trades of all time", Feature, Trader Monthly, April 2005. Retrieved on 2006-08-19.

Sawyer, Nick. "From politics to portfolios", Profile, Risk magazine, March 2005. Retrieved on 2006-08-19.

Hull, Blair. "The Future of Trading", Feature, Futures Industry Association, December 2000. Retrieved on 2006-08-19.