John Sakowicz:
CLASS OF 1970
Clarkstown High SchoolClass of 1970
New city, NY
Johns Hopkins University - Arts & ScienceClass of 1979
Baltimore, MD
St. Augustine SchoolClass of 1966
New city, NY
John's Story
LIFE
Greetings Classmates:
Hope you all are happy!
After graduating high school, I went to Johns Hopkins, in Baltimore, for a semester, then dropped out for about four years. Got readmitted to Hopkins in 1975. Took my BA in '77 and MA in '79. I started out as a biophysics major and ended up in at the Humanities Center and in the Department of Writing Seminars. The novelist, Louise Erdrich, was a classmate of mine. And my best friend at that time was Tom Sleigh.
These were some of the best years of my life.
In January, 1977, I married another graduate student. She was in the Art History Department at Hopkins. She was six years older than I, and she was a hot-blooded Italian and a Valasquez scholar. I won't name her here at classmates.com for reasons of privacy.
We had the first of four daughters in late-September, 1977.
After Hopkins, in 1979, began a career in financial services.
My entry level job was getting hired as a trainee by Buzzy Krongard at Alex Brown & Sons, in Baltimore.
Buzzy Krongard. Google him why don't you; you won't believe his bio.
My career then took the following trajectory.
I left Baltimore. Moved to New York. Worked on the floors of the NY Merchantile Exchange ( oil futures ) and the COMEX ( gold futures ) for Merrill Lynch Commodities.
Next, I worked on the floor at the NYSE for Spear Leeds Kellogg (SLK).
SLK is biggest specialist/market maker at the NYSE, where the legendary John Mulheren was one of my mentors.
John Mulheren is another great name to Google...a billionaire...a bipolar...most of all, a wonderful, stand up guy...sadly, now deceased.
Next, I got hired as vice president for product development at Colonial Management Associates, in Boston. Colonial Management Associates was sold to Liberty Mutual, which was then sold to the Columbia Funds Inc., which was acquired by Bank of America.
Next, I was hired as vice president and national sales manager for two product groups -- managed futures and precious metals -- at Dean Witter.
Futures and commodities, you ask?
Yup. Guess what?
The most actively traded "commodity" in the world is money...money in all its many permutations...Treasuries and Treasury equivalents...foreign curriences...interest rate swaps...equity swaps...total return swaps...inflation derivatives...constant maturity swaps...credit default swaps...Forex swaps...currency swaps...constant maturity swaps...basis swaps...volatility swaps...variance swaps...etc.
My next career move was co-founder and managing director at an offshore hedge fund in Grand Cayman. We had undisclosed accounts, so I don't have much to say except it was very sexy hedge fund.
We were one of the first "quant funds". We used non-linear statisical analysis...artifical intelligence...genetic algorithms.
Sold my partnership equity to another offshore entity in March, 2005.
Finally, I am presently a consultant on a project to develop the "digital dollar" in Dubai.
I also consult with an alpha return-type hedge fund.
And I have a radio show, "The Truth About Money", on KZYX, an NPR affiliate. You can listen to shows streaming live from the web every other Friday, at 9-10 AM, Pacifc Time. Videos of a few shows are archived on web tv, at ukiahvalley.tv.
I'm also a commentator on Al Jazeera, BBC, and other international electronic media outlets.
Finally, I've written for the progressive print media.
My personal life?
Four beautiful daughters. ( I worship the goddess! ) And two sons.
PEN award for writing about the AIDS epidemic, in 1997.
Commendations from the Massachuttes Senate and House of Representatives, earlier, in 1989, for leadership in fighting the AIDS epidemic. I started a transitional housing program for indigent people with AIDS, and several respite programs in homeless shelters.
Home in northern California.
Married again on Earth Day, 2003, to a woman I've known since 1995. Two sons, as previously mentioned. They are 18-years old and 15-years old.
Also, in August, 2006, I bought a home in Gozo, Malta. I'm establishing residency there and hope to apply for dual citizenship.
Currently, I informally advise the accounts for a few charitable trusts and foundations, whose work I also help support.
In the past, I've also volunteered as a teacher at the School of Developing Virtue and Instilling Goodness, at City of Ten Thousand Buddhas ( CTTB ), in Talmage, CA.
You can write to me at: John Sakowicz, P.O. Box 572, Talmage, CA 95481.
My religion? I would describe myself as a half-assed Catholic, half-assed Buddhist.
Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk, is one of my heroes. So are the Berrigan brothers.
I believe in prayer. I believe in meditation. I believe in service. I believe in telling the truth. I believe in creating beauty. I believe in compassion for all living beings. I believe in forgiveness. I believe that our external reality reflects inner consciousness. I believe we are the creators of our own paradise, or we are creators of our own hell.
I would love to hear what you believe and why. Write to me.
Finally, Clarkstown HS and that period in my life - late adolescence - seems like such a dream. Such a long-ago and far-away dream.
Life is a dream...a "waking dream", I guess. Poets and philosophers and theoretical physicists all tell us it is so... life is a waking dream.
Cheers for now. Be kind to yourselves.
Namaste,
John
SCHOOL
The teacher who inspired me the most at St. Augustine Elementary School was Sister Helen Francis, OPM.
Prior to St. Augustine, I had been a problem child at Chestnut Grove Elementary. By the time St. Augustine opened its doors for its fourth grade class in 1961, I was struggling in both the 2nd and 3rd grades, but luckily, I had been promoted anyway.
I was a big kid. M...Expand for more
oody. Anxious. Depressed. But I can't tell you why...even now, after all these years.
I remember on the first day of school at St. Augustine, Sister Helen Francis asked me to come into her office.
It was only the first day of school -- too soon to get into any sort of real trouble -- so I was really curious, and more than a little concerned, as to what Sister's issue with me was all about.
Sister began by congratulating me for an award I had won earlier that summer. I had attended a summer camp for the arts, and had won second place in a statewide competition for an oil painting of Queen Anne's lace in a blue crystal vase ( a difficult subject ).
After she congratulated me, Sister Helen Francis asked me to put my hands out in front of me. I did. Then, she held my hands in her hands, and kissed my hands and said the following words, which I will remember for as long as I live: "John, I will not let a boy who can paint like you to fail. I will not allow it."
"John, I will not let a boy who can paint like you to fail. I will not allow it."
I think I cried. I'm not sure. The memory becomes blurry at that point. But something happened. Something in my heart cracked open.
And I didn't disappoint Sister Helen Francis. I wasn't the smartest kid in the class -- Cathi Hession, Eugene Durkin, and Larry Murray were the brainiacs -- but I wasn't a problem child anymore.
Sister Helen Francis, OPM. Thank you.
....
The teacher who inspired me the most at Clarkstown High School was Mr. Malloy. He taught AP English.
I remember Mr. Malloy encouraged me to read Proust, Jean Genet, and Andre Malraux -- in French. I tried.
Mr. Malloy never underestimated his students. He held us to a higher standard than other teachers.
He was smart. He was a kind, sweet guy.
....
John Barth, Edmund White, Joseph McElroy, Charles Newman -- all novelists -- were my favorite teachers at John Hopkins.
Cynthia Macdonald and Richard Howard were my favorite poets at Hopkins.
Studied with Gary Wills, the critic and social observer.
....
After Hopkins, I took a few writing workshops. One workshop was in Key West with James Merrill.
James Merrill. How to describe him here?
He was a sort of prince among men...courtly, urbane, polite, well-dressed and fitted, well-spoken, literate, traveled, reared and educated among the super-rich ( his father founded Merrill Lynch )...but also sort of embarassed by it all.
Merrill seemed to be able to shrug off the world.
To a very large extent, he rejected the world. Merrill was a man who stripped himself down to that self-astonishing, elemental force that was his own mind-- his own mind. His wonderful mind.
Despite his great wealth, he lived a relatively modest life. But the opus of his work is epic.
James Merrill is one of America's greatest poets. "The Changing Light at Sandover", the book of poems he wrote with the help of his lover and a weejee board -- Merrill had an abiding, life-long interest in the supernatural -- is nothing short of astonishing.
Over the years, I took a few more workshops with Merrill. In 1995, he died, at 69, in Tuscon, of a heart attack.
COLLEGE
Please see the bio section called "School".
WORKPLACE
I had the best mentors a person could have on Wall Street...by turns, tough and kind...always street smart. Book smarts count for investment bankers, analysts, and institutional salespeople, but not for us traders...we are the gunslingers of Wall Street.
Becoming a trader was like learning how to play tournament-level poker...the only way I learned was with real money on the table.
And my mentors were the best...the best and the brightest.
Some of my mentors?
John Mulheren. He was the best. A monster trader. Awe inspiring. A genius.
Rough around the edges. Terrible temper. Came to work dressed in jeans, white t-shirt, and black motorcycle jacket. Reminded me of Bruce Springsteen...but on Wall Street.
Mulheren was a trader who had a rock star persona.
Mulheren was a legend at Spear Leeds Kellogg. A legend at Bear Stearns. A legend at the NYSE. A legend at the U.S. Attorney's Office, in Manhattan.
Simply, a legend.
Sadly, deceased ( 2003 ).
Ken Tropin. Ken was my mentor too...wasn't a trader, but was a product innovator of enormous proportions.
Ken developed highly innovative products for their time on Wall Street. The first was managed futures funds. Managed furtures funds took commodities pools to the next level; in my opinion, managed futures funds were the precursor to today's hedge funds.
Ken's second area of innovation was unit investment trusts, in particular, precious metals trusts -- gold, silver, and platinum -- that were issued weekly at the close of market and marked-to-the-market. These precious metals unit investment trusts eliminated the need for taking devilery of bullion or coins.
By example, Ken taught me to sell. He was the best salesman I ever knew.
Ken also taught "career management" by example. Eventually, like Ken, I quit working for big Wall Street firms, and help start an offshore fund.
It was a business plan that worked.
Other role models?
George Soros.
Never a colleague at work, per se, but learned from his example that traders, like financial markets, need to always safeguard their integrity.
"When the day is done, our integrity is the only real asset under management." ( paraphrasing Soros ).
I also greatly respect the philanthropic work of George Soros, especially in Eastern Europe. He is a Hungarian Jew, who immigrated to the United States as a teenager during Hungarian Revolt of 1956.
Soros never forgot his roots.
MILITARY
ROTC dropout. Then grew my hair for five years.
Became a peace activist. For a time was part of the very, very extended family Jonah House in Baltimore.
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