Blair Hull

Blair Hull (born September 3, 1942) is an American businessman, investor, and Democratic politician.

Blair Hull was born in 1942, the son of Marson Hull and Jean Matlock Hull, and raised in Los Gatos, California—near what would later be called Silicon Valley.

After completing high school, Hull went to work on the assembly line of a cannery factory to help support his family, ultimately joining Union Local 679 and earning himself a union card by the age of 19.

During the Vietnam buildup, Hull served six years in the United States Army.

After reaching the rank of lieutenant and completing his military service, Blair Hull turned to the classroom, teaching high school level math and physics before becoming a student again himself and going on to higher education with the GI Bill, as his father had done before him.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, his MBA from Santa Clara University and graduated from the Harvard Owner/President Management Program.

While working full-time at a manufacturing company, Hull tested his mathematical and analytical skills at the blackjack tables in Las Vegas, where he proved to be a skilled and disciplined player.

Hull took his accumulated winnings to the Pacific Stock Exchange, then to the Chicago financial exchanges.

Once there, he established himself as a pioneer in the trading industry, revolutionizing the financial markets through the use of innovative models and state-of-the-art technology.

As Founder of Hull Trading Company, Blair Hull built a business from scratch in Illinois, created hundreds of jobs, and grew his company into one of the most successful trading firms in the country.

In 2022, Blair Hull was inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame, an organization that honors

the greatest blackjack experts, authors and professional players in history.

Hull was a big player in Al Francesco’s blackjack team in the mid-’70s, is responsible for the Hall of Fame’s success in forming its own 501-C3 Charitable Foundation, and is also the recipient of the first “Ed Thorp Lifetime Achievement Award.”

Trained in mathematics and computer science, Blair Hull first applied his skills and training to advantage play in blackjack, and then went on to develop an empirical model independent of Black–Scholes to use on the financial markets.

Throughout the 1970s, Hull honed his system on the casino floors.

As one of the “Big Players” on Al Francesco’s storied blackjack team, Blair beat the odds, or rather, beat the house by shifting the edge in his favor.

By utilizing mathematical systems - first Edward O. Thorp's 10 Count Card system, and later Lawrence Revere's Advanced Point Count system - Hull and a team of skilled card players were able to determine when they gained an advantage over the dealer, and how best to bet to exploit that advantage.

They consistently turned a profit, and their story is outlined in the book "The Big Player" by Ken Uston.

Hull left the blackjack tables with $25,000 and took his winnings to the markets—first leasing a seat on the Pacific Stock Exchange, then starting a firm on the Chicago financial exchanges.

Hull founded Hull Trading Company in 1985 and served as the firm's Chairman and chief executive officer before selling it to Goldman Sachs in 1999 for $531 million.

The company, which leveraged technological innovations and quantitative models, was one of the world's premier market-making firms, trading on 28 exchanges in nine countries.

Blair Hull founded Hull Trading Company in 1985 and served as the firm's chairman and CEO.

The company was a global leader in the application of computer technology to listed derivatives trading.

Hull developed a proprietary and large scale reliable distributed system architecture, providing automatic real-time pricing, risk management, market making and interconnection with automated options, futures and stock exchanges as they became available.

Hull's massively scalable software technology was deployed to cover both domestic and international markets as electronic, on-line exchanges became available, while innovative hand-held computer technology was employed at exchanges still requiring execution by floor traders.

The firm grew to over 250 employees including financial engineers, physicists, almost 100 software engineers and computer support staff.

At its peak, Hull Trading Company moved nearly a quarter of the entire daily market volume on some markets, executed over 7% of the index options traded in the United States, 3% of the equity options, and 1% of all shares traded daily on the New York Stock Exchange.

Hull went on to found Hull Investments, LLC in 1999 which serves as a family office for three generations of the Hull family, and acts as parent company to a number of financial entities.

In 1999, Blair Hull sold his company to Goldman Sachs for $531 million.

Hull Investments, LLC was founded in 1999 following the sale of Hull Trading Group to Goldman Sachs for $531 million.

Today, Hull Investments, LLC serves as the family office for three generations of the Hull family, and acts as parent company to a number of financial entities including Hull Tactical Asset Allocation, LLC.

A longtime political activist and donor, Blair Hull sought the Illinois Democratic Party nomination as candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2004 as a champion of universal healthcare and efficiency in government.

Barack Obama ultimately won that primary.

Blair Hull remains active in the political arena as both an activist and donor.

Hull is married to Cynthia Cranmer Erb, and is father to four adult children: Kristin, Megan, Jeff, and Courtney.

In 2009, Hull founded Ketchum Trading, LLC, a proprietary trading firm that traded and provided liquidity in futures, options, cash equities and exchange-traded funds.

And in 2013, Hull created Hull Tactical Asset Allocation, LLC.

HTAA operates an actively managed ETF and utilizes advanced algorithms as well as macro and technical indicators to anticipate future market returns.

Trader Monthly recognized him for having executed one of "The 40 Greatest Trades of All Time" and Worth Magazine named him one of "Wall Street’s 25 Smartest Players."

Hull has also been honored by The Options Industry Council as the 2014 recipient of the Joseph W. Sullivan Options Industry Achievement Award" in recognition of his outstanding lifetime contributions to the growth and integrity of the U.S. options market.