FORREST CITY, Ark. -- Twenty-six years old, and left by his father's death to run the family farm here in the rich soil of the Arkansas Delta, John Henry penciled out his problem this way: 1,000 acres planted with soybeans, each producing 40 bushels, equaled 40,000 bushels of soybeans. What to do with all those soybeans?
Henry's pursuit of a solution led him to the commodity markets, where contracts for agricultural products are bought and sold, and sparked a fascination with price movements that ultimately transformed him from farmer to financier. In less than a decade, Henry, a college dropout, not only taught himself the risky business of commodity speculation, but in short order devised his still-working trading model; pioneered a type of investment called "managed futures"; and launched a firm that is among the most successful of its kind in the world.
In Boston, Henry is best known as owner of the Red Sox, an enterprise that he, like the Yawkeys before him, has so far been unable to lead to the pinnacle of the baseball profession. But in the investment industry, Henry, 54, is an established superstar, described by friends and colleagues in the business as a "genius," "visionary," and, most of all, "winner." In a game in which they really play for keeps, Henry has not only risen to the top, but stayed there through innovation, discipline, and an unconventional philosophy that makes money, as Henry wryly puts it, by "buying high and selling low."
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2004/04/19/sox_owners_success_driven_by_numbers/
Henry's pursuit of a solution led him to the commodity markets, where contracts for agricultural products are bought and sold, and sparked a fascination with price movements that ultimately transformed him from farmer to financier. In less than a decade, Henry, a college dropout, not only taught himself the risky business of commodity speculation, but in short order devised his still-working trading model; pioneered a type of investment called "managed futures"; and launched a firm that is among the most successful of its kind in the world.
In Boston, Henry is best known as owner of the Red Sox, an enterprise that he, like the Yawkeys before him, has so far been unable to lead to the pinnacle of the baseball profession. But in the investment industry, Henry, 54, is an established superstar, described by friends and colleagues in the business as a "genius," "visionary," and, most of all, "winner." In a game in which they really play for keeps, Henry has not only risen to the top, but stayed there through innovation, discipline, and an unconventional philosophy that makes money, as Henry wryly puts it, by "buying high and selling low."
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2004/04/19/sox_owners_success_driven_by_numbers/
