I’m Paul Strickland, founder and CEO of Algorithmic Assets, Inc.. Since I’ll be leading this initiative and writing most of what appears here, I’d like to share a bit of my story—not to sell you on me, but to show you where my vision comes from.
Long ago, I began trading commodity futures as a student at the University of Texas at Austin. I was more interested in commodity charts than chemistry—more focused on the soybean Commitment of Traders report than my organic lab. That focus paid off – even though I never finished that chemistry degree. I often had more disposable income than anyone I knew. And like most people who start early and succeed fast, I was hooked.
By the late 1970s, I had moved to Chicago to pursue my dream of becoming a floor trader. I started on the options floor of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), working for a wealthy trader as a market-maker clerk. Within a year, I earned my “yellow badge” and became a member of both the CBOE and the Chicago Board of Trade.
Those floors were a world unto themselves—half economics, half survival sport. Intimidation ruled. Trades were fast, markets were brutal, and every inch of the bid/ask spread was won or lost on instinct, discipline, and grit. Most days were slow. Others felt like war. But even in the chaos, I fell in love with the precision and pressure of market structures.
Over time, I found myself drawn to the theoretical side of options. I contributed to early research on valuation models and developed strong opinions about their limitations—opinions that still influence how I think about hedging and strategy design today.
I later returned to Texas to launch my own firm—Spooz Publishing Group, Inc.—an introducing broker for Refco that specialized in agricultural hedging. I had no idea how skeptical West Texas ranchers would be of a “city boy.” They didn’t want talk—they wanted tools. So we built one.
With a partner, I developed a fat-cattle hedging platform in Microsoft Excel® that mapped feedlot pens and calculated exposures in real-time. When we brought that tool back to Hereford, Texas, we converted 17 of 21 feedlots into clients. From $0 in revenue, we grew to $1 million in net commissions in seven months. Refco took notice, invested in the company, and encouraged us to move to Chicago and keep building.
That story could’ve ended there. But I never let go of one question:
Why hasn’t anyone built tools like this for the rest of the market?
Too many traders are trapped in spreadsheets. Too many hedgers are guessing. Too many risk managers are flying blind—and paying dearly for it.
So here we are.
The Billionaire Hedger’s Club and the platform behind it—Millionaire Hedger’s Club—aren’t theoretical. They’re the result of lived experience: battle-tested insight, costly mistakes, and decades of refining what works and discarding what doesn’t.
I’m not here to promise the impossible or pitch hype. I’m here to build something that matters—with people who understand what’s at stake. Our platform fuses institutional-grade execution with non-programmer accessibility. And this blog? It’s where we build it out loud.
If you’ve got the conviction, skill, and character to shape something truly meaningful in the markets—we want to hear from you.
Let’s build it right!
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