Trading for Life

Sanford Wexler

Ninety three-year old John H. Slade earned his fame and fortune.

A senior trader at Bear, Stearns & Co. in New York City, he did it the hard way and came up through the ranks. Slade prospered at one of the few remaining independent Wall Street firms.

Now into his 65th year at Bear, Stearns, Slade is a senior managing director of the international department, and the honorary chairman of the firm’s executive committee.

He has seen it all before – from the “go-go 60s” collapse and the sluggish early 1970s, to the 1987 crash and the more recent and terrible tech wreck. So the recent slide in the marketplace does not bother this hardy veteran. “Human beings get sick and then get better,” Slade said, philosophically.

Field Hockey

Born in Frankfurt, Germany, the son of a successful real estate broker, Slade originally aspired to become an Olympic athlete …