Bruce Who? A $100 Million Man Finally Gets Attention, Much to His Chagrin --- Professsorial Kovner Prospers In Currencies and Futures; Bond Trading Is Probed --- He Owes It to Writer's Block
NEW YORK -- Bruce Kovner gave up on his Harvard Ph.D. because he couldn't get over writer's block on his doctoral thesis. He drove a cab. He studied the harpsichord. He tried political consulting. But in 1976, at age 31, he says, he was still "floating" through life.</br></br>Finally, he decided he really needed to get a job and make some money. And did he ever: He earned about $100 million a year in 1989 and 1990, making him the highest paid trader on Wall Street. The assets he manages for his clients and himself have grown to $1.23 billion, which makes him one of the biggest independent traders of currencies and futures.</br></br>This son of a trade unionist has become a friend of the rich and powerful. He chats up world policymakers as a trustee of four conservative think tanks, including the Hoover Institution and the American Enterprise Institute. Last year he was host of a dinner in his 16-room Park Avenue apartment for George Shultz, the former secretary of state, when Mr. Shultz joined Hoover.</br></br>Mr. Kovner, now 46, says his success is the result of good research, good timing and good contacts. The U.S. government is investigating whether there might be more to it than that: Authorities are probing what role he and another big-league money manager, Michael Steinhardt, may have played in a market squeeze on two-year Treasury notes sold in April.</br></br>That has put Mr. Kovner into the spotlight on government bond trading, a spotlight switched on when Salomon Brothers Inc. admitted violating bidding rules in Treasury note auctions. And, for Mr. Kovner, it's a most uncomfortable place. For despite his huge assets, big earnings and important friends, few people on Wall Street know him or anything about him. He has kept a remarkably low profile, shunning publicity and usually refusing to be quoted.