A KNACK FOR NUMBERS

At first glance, George Haywood seems as straight as they come. Then get him talking. The son of two teachers, Haywood graduated from high school at 16. With perfect scores of 800 in both his physics and chemistry pre-college achievement tests and a 772 in math, it was obvious that Haywood had a gift for solving extremely complex problems.

Three years later, however, he took time off from pre-med studies at Harvard University to work as a flight attendant--just for the fun of it. And instead of hitting the books at Harvard Law School, Haywood spent most of his time counting blackjack cards in casinos from Atlantic City to Panama. He says he treated the mastery of his self-taught discipline "like a job"--and was wellpaid for his efforts. Haywood says his winnings amounted to six figures, enough to support himself for two years after the rest of his law class had graduated and he had stopped frequenting the gaming tables.

When the money started to dwindle and Haywood realized he wasn't really interested in law, friends on Wall Street piqued his interest in pursuing a fast-paced career in trading.

Haywood was quickly hired by Lehman Brothers, now a division of Shearson Lehman Holdings Inc., and chose to trade corporate bonds. It was, he notes, the hot area in the early '80s, "the altar at which all traders prayed."

With that sort of history and true genius for numbers, it's no wonder that, in 1982, Haywood finished first in his sales and trading training class at Lehman Brothers, whose parent company is owned by American Express Co. Equally not surprising is that as a managing director there less than 10 years later, Haywood routinely outperforms many of his fellow corporate bond traders.

Haywood's job is to sell big blocks of long industrial bonds to banks, insurance companies and pension funds. He adds: "The day the stock market crashed in 1987, was the greatest day the bond market had experienced in decades." During periods of unusually low interest rates like now, long bonds (which will mature in 10 years) attract greater demand. Haywood can sell these bonds at a higher price to investors looking to lock in a higher rate for future gains. (Haywood, authorized to commit as much as$500 million of his firm's capital, has an all-time high for one month of $5 million in profit for his firm.)

Haywood attributes his success as a trader to his head for figures. He also displays a trader's necessary knack for thinking fast on his feet and under pressure, assessing risk and knowing when to tolerate it. Working well with and responding quickly to clients and salespeople also are traits that keep him at the top of his industry.

Following a two-yea r stint as head trader in his area, a job that is 95% administrative and managerial, Haywood returned to the center of the trading floor, to the job he loves. As for blackjack, the 39-year-old gambler-turned-trader says he doesn't miss it. "If you put the same amount of effort into law or medicine or trading," says Haywood, "you can probably make more money and hold your head up in society."

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