Tom Hutchinson is the founder of Belvedere Trading. He is a former floor trader who sat for an interview with John Lothian News for the Open Outcry Traders History Project.
Hutchinson wanted to be a professional athlete, but as he got older he decided he wanted to become an engineer. He liked that there was a right or wrong answer in engineering.
A fellow engineering student’s enthusiasm for working on Wall Street first caught Hutchinson’s attention for a career there.
He spent seven years at Rice University before graduating with a bachelor’s degree, but he said that when he learned he was not going to graduate after four years it allowed him to take what he called “a risky internship.”
He came up to Chicago for a summer internship working on the trading floors.
Hutchinson has recruited many people to the markets, including many friends and teammates. He said some were very talented traders but did not have the love of the markets.
He traded on the CBOE for just four years, he said. They were formative years trading in the SPX and Mini-Nasdaq pit, he said.
Hutchinson said he did not have a good relationship with his father. His mother let him make his own decision about what he was doing for a career.
Hutchinson said he wishes he could have been a better manager earlier in his career.
His best memory is helping other people on the trading floor to improve their trading spots as time goes on. He remembers the different songs people would sing on the floor.
Outtrades were among his worst memories. Hutchinson learned to concentrate on what he could control rather than on what he couldn’t.
When talking about the economic opportunity, Hutchinson told the story about buying an extra-large Snickers bar for a trader and how it related to a big trade.
