Our Mindset on Money

With over 38 years of experience in the financial world, Bill Haase has a background of 20 years in the trading pits of Chicago (Wall Street), processing and underwriting of loans with major banks, and several years of financial advising (Main Street) to people like you. While he was never a trader (but was a broker!), Bill exercised occasional trades, and was involved in the transactions of stocks, stock options, Bonds, S&P futures, foreign currencies, risk arbitrage, and interest rate futures that included Eurodollars, Euroyen, and Libor. In 2004, Bill was the first person in the US to execute side-by-side pit and computer trading at the same time. No amusement park will ever develop a ride like Bill had on that day! He also had a 4-year running radio show titled "Innovative Strategies," where Bill and his guests discussed financial literacy and how to build a business from concept to success. Logging nearly 1000 interviews including a couple hundred live on the show, Bill is launching a podcast with special guests to discuss how they live their lives with intention, and what parts they live by default. Bill began his career at the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) as a runner with Goldberg Brothers taking option orders on stocks to the various brokers in the pits and acting as the runner when those options were executed. When hired, Bill was told that only one out of ten runners would make it a full month; yet Bill lasted twenty years. From there, Bill graduated to buying and selling stocks for traders as they hedged their options positions. About a year and a half into this crazy world, the powers that be thought Bill might be a good fit working in the Ivy Tower helping with a relatively new strategy called Risk Arbitrage. Bill participated in selling or buying baskets of stock that could be valued as high as $15, 000, 000 each, and it the trade was completed in a matter of mere minutes. Back then, there was a person who would execute (trade) futures against the stock position (if buying stocks, then selling futures and vice versa) that was chosen and lock in the difference in pricing. This was primarily the Fortune 500 stocks versus the S&P 500 futures, but other options were used occasionally. One day, Bill was sent to have lunch with Prudential Bache, and signed the largest stock loan contract of its day for $100 million. Bill longed to get back to the action of the pits, recalling the mantra, "You either love it or hate it, and you'll know quickly." Bill headed over to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and worked a desk with a well-known company called Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. in the Eurodollar pit (interest rate futures). This was the largest trading pit in the world with roughly 1500 people at any given time, trading over 40 different futures and any combination of those futures, as well as the options on those futures. Just nine months into this new gig, Drexel got forced into bankruptcy in 1990 for an issue with Junk Bonds, and after a bit Bill wound up at Nikko Securities as the desk manager for a group of Japanese brokers. A little over six years later, Bill switched sides and moved into the pit as a clerk involved with spreads (buying one contract while selling another at the same time, which could involve strategies for spreading that may include several futures at once). About four years later, computer trading had finally made it to the US. What a splash this made! When your world gets taken over by technology where does one go? Certainly not the corporate world, or so he thought. While trying to start his own business, Bill landed at Chase Bank in Milwaukee processing loan modifications, moving back to Illinois a year later with Bank of America processing and underwriting loans for residential deals. After three years, Bill became a financial advisor and worked for various companies, recounting how his experience would help him get a step ahead of the competition. What Bill learned was that most pe