John D. Arnold
| John D. Arnold | |
|---|---|
| Born |
John Douglas Arnold 1974 (age 42–43) Dallas, Texas |
| Alma mater | Vanderbilt University |
| Occupation | Investor, former hedge fund manager |
| Net worth |
 $2.8 billion (March 2013) |
| Spouse(s) | Laura Muñoz |
| Children | 3 |
John Douglas Arnold (born 1974) is an American billionaire and former hedge fund manager who specializes in natural gas trading. His firm, Centaurus Advisors, LLC, was a Houston-based hedge fund that specialized in trading energy products. Arnold announced his retirement from running the hedge fund on May 2, 2012.
Arnold was raised in Dallas, Texas, and he was the younger of two sons. Like Arnold, his brother, Matthew, also traded at Enron. His father was a lawyer, and his mother worked as an accountant at Arnold's Centaurus. His father died when Arnold was 17. In 1995, he graduated from Vanderbilt University with a degree in mathematics and economics. He is a member of Lambda Chi Alpha.
After college, he began his career at Enron as an oil analyst but was soon promoted to assistant trader. In 1996, he moved over to the Natural Gas Desk upon the departure of Jeff Bussan and started trading natural gas derivatives. 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. One of his former colleagues dubbed him "king of natural gas."
When Enron collapsed in 2002, he founded Centaurus with his previous year's bonus. 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 counter parties. So the lesser credits found themselves with fewer counter parties 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."
During the collapse of Amaranth Advisors, Centaurus is widely credited as being one of the major players on the other side of their position, and returning as much as 150% in 2005.
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