John Thomas
Daily Commentary Contributor
Known as the founding father of the international hedge fund industry, Thomas has over 40 years experience in global financial markets. He launched Wall Street’s original dedicated international hedge fund over 20 years ago. After cashing out before the tech wreck and retiring to manage his personal money (mostly in commodities), he decided to jump back into the game after the 2008 financial collapse.
Since then, year after year, he’s been one of the top performing hedge fund managers. Small wonder, considering…
- Wall Street titans like Paul Tudor Jones and George Soros PAID him to consult on their hedge funds during his days as a top trader at Morgan Stanley.
- He spent 10 years working for and being mentored by the legendary Barton Biggs, the multi-billion hedge fund manager and former Chief Global Strategist for Morgan Stanley. Biggs is widely considered the #1 global trading strategist in the world.
- He worked with T. Boone Pickens to organize financing for a Mesa Petroleum Pac Man oil company takeover in the early 80s, when it was cheaper to drill for oil on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange than in the field.
- He took a young, cocky Steve Jobs to Morgan Stanley to pitch an Apple share offering to institutional investors.
John has worked with a constant stream of traders over the years – the good, the great, the one-hit wonders, the crooks, the geniuses and the morons.
He’s made fortunes, lost them and made them back all over again. He knows Wall Street, its players and––more importantly–– how they think and trade.
This world-class trader mentors do-it-yourself traders in his breakthrough coaching program and trading service, Macro Millionaire.
John has devoted his life to understanding global capital markets –– not because of money he could make there, but because of the limitless intellectual challenge it offers.
Prior to his days at Morgan Stanley, John was a reporter for top publications like The Economist and the Financial Times. He spent time as a member of the White House Press Corps, where he covered the early years of the Reagan administration. He’s interviewed major political figures, including former global leaders such as Chinese Premier Deng Xiaoping, Phillipine president Ferdinand Marcos, United Kingdom Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, PLO Chairman Yassir Arafat and, of course, President Ronald Reagan.
John’s obviously picked up a lot of contacts through his 40 years in Washington and Wall Street, and it he brings those connections to his readers here at Market Authority.
In the last year alone, John has dined with or been briefed by…
- Former President Clinton. They discussed opportunities to create new job growth engines for the U.S. like the one that generated 23 million jobs in the 1990s. John is seeking sectors where politics can funnel large sums of money.
- CIA Director Leon Panetta, who he mined for information about geopolitical and security challenges as they pertain to financial markets.
- Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, General David Petraeus, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General James E. Cartwright and more.
Because the CIA and U.S. military spend around $70 billion on global research, but don’t trade it, John has always stayed close to the decision makers. “You’d be surprised at how often those conversations turn into directly into profitable trades,” he says.
In his free time, John climbs mountains, backpacks long distances, practices karate, performs aerobatics in vintage aircraft, collects vintages wines, reads the Japanese classics and engages in a wide variety of public service and philanthropic activities.
Why they call him “mad” he will never understand.
