John D. Arnold

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John D. Arnold runs Centaurus Energy LP, a Houston, Texas based hedge fund that specializes in trading energy products. After graduating from Vanderbilt University he began his career as a trader at Enron. After initially working on the Crude Oil desk, John moved over to the Natural Gas Desk upon the departure of Jeff Bussan. Using their new Internet-based trading network, EnronOnline he is credited with making three quarters of a billion dollars for Enron in 2001 and was rewarded with an $8 million bonus. ^[1].

According to Arnold, “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 counterparties. So the lesser credits found themselves with fewer counterparties 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.”

When Enron collapsed in 2002, he founded Centaurus with his previous years $8 million bonus, and now has as much as $3 Billion in assets under management ^[2] . His employees include several big name energy traders including ex-Enron CEO Greg Whalley ^[3], Bill Perkins and Conrad Goerl previously of Motherrock. During the collapse of Amaranth, Centaurus Energy is widely credited as being one of the major players on the other side of their position, and with returning as much as 150% in 2005. ^[4], ^[5]

"Although I have been very successful at commodity trading I am going to need help to make it to the Top Ten Robot Dancers Circle" John once stated. On March 26th John received help from the king of Robot Dancing Michael Chambers. "I am pleased to help a fellow robot dancer improve his skills" stated Bugaloo Shrimp(a name his fans call him). After some warm ups John and Bugaloo Shrimp got to practicing.“ I now have the missing steps I need to make the top ten” exclaimed John. Mr. Chambers agreed stating with practice John will definitely make it. People in Centaurus were very impressed on how a kid from Vanderbilt could move "like that".