nother one bites the dust.
Another option trader friend of mine just died. The first one I wrote about here was Howard Ring, he was a friend and colleague, a backgammon champ, a very smart, math-oriented genius. And a really nice guy, to boot. The second one I wrote about here was Steve Fossett, not as much a friend as friendly opponent, he was a gamesman also. The friend who just died was John Bender. Bender made a fortune in options, then other fortunes after that. He was also the smartest person I've ever met or talked with much. Is there something about smart options traders that kills them off? Any case, let me tell you a little bit of the John Bender I knew. He might have been the most interesting of them all.
John was a brilliant mathematician. I never saw anyone do puzzles as well as him. Ever. John would hear/read the puzzle, then give you the answer. I never ever saw him hesitate, no matter what the source material, he always had the right answer, immediately. (As a related aside, but hopefully no jinx, there is/was a guy on the CBOE when I worked there who could take any jumble of letters up to eight of them, and within 3 seconds, tell you what word(s) was formed. Bender could do that AND math puzzles AND essay puzzles AND finance puzzles, all just like that. He was amazingly smart/quick.
John Bender came to the PHLX sometime in the 80s, after me. He had money right from the start, I have no idea where he got it. There was some speculation that he was an ex-porn star. (The floor of the 80s was filled with people who came from other fields, there were ex-pro athletes, psychologists, celeb personalities, ex-poker pros, nothing was too outlandish, but typically, the only way to get employment on an exchange floor was through family or college connections.) The speculation became "established" as "solid rumor" when I, under John's behest and after continual goading, said I saw one of the movies. Hey, the floor work is often boring (95% boredom, 5% terror), and John was pretty persuasive to get me to say it. Oh well. That rumor still is told on the PHLX, from what I have heard, but I never in fact saw a film. I thought at the time, and still think now, that John goaded me into it because he wanted to increase his chance of getting a girlfriend from the floor. (That is a whole other topic....back to relevancy....)
John used to sell puts pretty hard in one of my primary stocks, Fannie Mae. I always hated that stock, it was obvious the company model was flawed, but back then, the stock price was generally between $50 and $90, and John always sold a big block of out of the money puts, with a lot of time on them. I loved buying from him, cause, he would give me something to take positions against. He loved selling to me, cause the stock was almost always well bid, and almost always, his short puts went out worthless. The last I heard, John's fortune was about half a billion dollars. Worked great for everyone.
John got very rich using mathematics to understand things.
The last time I saw John Bender was about 15 years ago, when he left the Philadelphia area, pretty much. He had started buying land in Costa Rica, he wanted to buy as much of the inland area as he could, he said he wanted to preserve the rainforest.
He was a nice guy. The articles I've read on him (so far) do not give that impression. Jewel "trafficker"? Makes it sound like drugs, even. But the John I knew was a good egg(head).
John was a brilliant mathematician. I never saw anyone do puzzles as well as him. Ever. John would hear/read the puzzle, then give you the answer. I never ever saw him hesitate, no matter what the source material, he always had the right answer, immediately. (As a related aside, but hopefully no jinx, there is/was a guy on the CBOE when I worked there who could take any jumble of letters up to eight of them, and within 3 seconds, tell you what word(s) was formed. Bender could do that AND math puzzles AND essay puzzles AND finance puzzles, all just like that. He was amazingly smart/quick.
John Bender came to the PHLX sometime in the 80s, after me. He had money right from the start, I have no idea where he got it. There was some speculation that he was an ex-porn star. (The floor of the 80s was filled with people who came from other fields, there were ex-pro athletes, psychologists, celeb personalities, ex-poker pros, nothing was too outlandish, but typically, the only way to get employment on an exchange floor was through family or college connections.) The speculation became "established" as "solid rumor" when I, under John's behest and after continual goading, said I saw one of the movies. Hey, the floor work is often boring (95% boredom, 5% terror), and John was pretty persuasive to get me to say it. Oh well. That rumor still is told on the PHLX, from what I have heard, but I never in fact saw a film. I thought at the time, and still think now, that John goaded me into it because he wanted to increase his chance of getting a girlfriend from the floor. (That is a whole other topic....back to relevancy....)
John used to sell puts pretty hard in one of my primary stocks, Fannie Mae. I always hated that stock, it was obvious the company model was flawed, but back then, the stock price was generally between $50 and $90, and John always sold a big block of out of the money puts, with a lot of time on them. I loved buying from him, cause, he would give me something to take positions against. He loved selling to me, cause the stock was almost always well bid, and almost always, his short puts went out worthless. The last I heard, John's fortune was about half a billion dollars. Worked great for everyone.
John got very rich using mathematics to understand things.
The last time I saw John Bender was about 15 years ago, when he left the Philadelphia area, pretty much. He had started buying land in Costa Rica, he wanted to buy as much of the inland area as he could, he said he wanted to preserve the rainforest.
He was a nice guy. The articles I've read on him (so far) do not give that impression. Jewel "trafficker"? Makes it sound like drugs, even. But the John I knew was a good egg(head).