Trader: Paul Tudor Jones II (#82)

Paul Tudor Jones II: 41, New York, N.Y. $128,000. Party: Both

By L.J. Davis

Paul Tudor Jones is the slightly aging whiz kid of futures trading, one of the few acknowledged masters of the arcane world of the commodities pit. (Hillary Clinton's Whitewater troubles are largely a result of her improbable amateur success with futures trading.)

Formerly (and literally) a pedestrian butter-and-eggs business, the futures markets have expanded to the point where they can disrupt the economies of entire nations. Much of the blame for the crash of 1987, for example, can be laid at the door of the futures markets. Mega-investor Nelson Bunker Hunt once used the futures markets in an attempt to corner the silver market and create his own private currency, corrupting legislators and threatening the country's stability in the process.

No one has ever accused Jones, however, of illegal acts. An avid fisherman, Jones has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars pushing for environmental funding for the resotration of the Florida Everglades. Still, he would presumably like the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (recent chair: Sen. Phil Gramm's wife, Wendy) to remain the most toothless of federal regulatory bodies--that is, if it is not abolished altogether, a longtime industry goal.