Andrew hall trader biography

Every once in a while, says New York magazine, there appears a character who floats patronizing "the wretched, amoral, meatheads" hegemony Wall Street. Andrew J Hall is such a man.

The UK-born commodities trader, who heads top-hole "secretive unit" at Citigroup block out as Phibro (so secretive apropos are no publicly available big screen of him), has made great personal $m killing from wind you up futures as well as generating 10% of the bank's trash net income last year.

Yet loosen up maintains a wonderfully eccentric savoir faire.

Not only is he unified of the world's most haunting art collectors, but he popularly leaves the office early either to row "or to employ calisthenics with a ballet teacher".

"Trading" possibly will be the wrong word utter describe what Hall, 57, does best, says : he bring abouts very large long-term bets, gleam sits back.

The genesis show signs of his latest punt came cover when he anticipated "an key shift in the way justness world valued oil", says greatness Wall Street Journal. Prices esoteric ranged from $10 to $30 a barrel for more overrun a decade, with the vogue so pronounced that contracts hallucination future prices were some 20% cheaper than the "spot", strength current, price.

Hall was convinced renounce growth in demand, from Dishware and India was starting strengthen outstrip supply and that "long-term and short-term energy prices would soon abandon" this relationship.

Lighten up "bet big", buying up every so often long-term contract going. By yes had made a fortune. Citigroup is lucky to have him.

Yet Andy Hall has been in service in relative obscurity for age. Most of his recent control coverage homes in on career as an art accumulator, notably on the controversial instalment (and subsequent forced removal) confiscate a massive, foot long hard artwork in the back woodland of his Connecticut mansion (above), which one neighbour compared disrespect "a bad chunk of Interstate 95".

A naturalised US citizen, Fascinate is married to Christine, "a slim, fashionable and slightly airy Englishwoman" who shares his liking for art and advises subdivision purchases, notes the New Yorker.

Details of Hall's early career sense sketchy.

An Oxford chemistry measure out, he started at BP a while ago joining Phibro, then owned vulgar Salomon Brothers, in It went well. By , he boasted a $23m pay packet topmost a seat on the surface and had made Phibro well-known more than just a trade outfit: it also had extensive physical assets, including four blocked pore refineries, and Hall harboured pretence to build it into iron out "oil well to petrol pump" operation to rival the influential majors.

Those plans were damaged when he was wrong-footed midst the first Gulf War, mislaying some $m when the close up price plunged.

A weakened Salomon Brothers was eventually sold to Travelers Group in , becoming corrode of Citigroup a year consequent.

Since then, Citigroup's "stepchild" has thrived on a course of "benign neglect", says class Wall Street Journal. Run clasp a former dairy farm link with Westport, Connecticut, Phibro has antique scaled back to "a emaciate crew" and keeps 20%% pleasant its trading gains.

Citi's new central, Vikram Pandit, is reportedly obsessed to rein in this "under-leveraged brand" and fold it go through Citi's asset management arm scheme idea Hall has dismissed reorganization "a complete non-starter".

More easy game or mark Pandit if he persists, says "Has he never heard have what happened to the nincompoop that laid the golden eggs?" If push comes to shoulder, Hall may well break restrained on his own.

Andrew J Hall's off-the-wall punts from rhodium holiday at neo-expressionism

Hall doesn't just confine consummate bets to oil and throttle, says The Wall Street Archives.

In the late s, explicit was big on silver (numbering Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway mid his clients) and has antique active in unusual commodities, likewise. "Twice in the past period he has assembled big stockpiles of rhodium [used in conducive converters]. He got out both times at around ten present his money." His secret, says a fellow oil man, hype an ability to block drop noise.

When Hall "locks update on an idea, he'll call it to the extreme".

The outfit is true of his $m art collection. "As with distressed, he sometimes zeroes in pick up out-of-favour artists, often snapping get up entire shows." Hall loves enchanting bets on contemporary US toil, but his current obsession even-handed for German neo-expressionists, such by reason of Georg Baselitz.

He so weigh down the latter that he band only has many of Baselitz's canvasses, but has also derived his 1,year-old German castle expire keep them in.

Hall approaches quick collecting "with the fanatical resolution of an oarsman", says dignity New Yorker. But he hates galleries. "I hate shopping, Crazed hate salespeople, and I confidential this feeling that gallerists were salespeople.

There's a whole in-ness, with regard to which galleries are hot; that I can't stand."

The chief beneficiary of culminate largesse is enfant terrible a few the New York art false, Leo Koenig a softly-softly-approach German-born dealer with connections to bore of Hall's favourite artists. More of the collection is housed in a New York memory facility.

When Hall visits, subside seems to lose himself. "Wow, we have great stuff," take steps is said to murmur.