BOND TRADER JOHN DEVANEY has built an estimated $250 million fortune by taking risks that Wall Street firms avoided -- betting big on chancy structured bonds amid a wave of post-Enron defaults and snapping up airline debt following the 9/11 attacks. Lately, he has been buying pools of subprime mortgages in the midst of a housing market implosion.
"Bond trading is my bread and butter, and I'm very good at it," he says.
Devaney is no less abashed when it comes to the ambitions of his tiny brokerage firm, United Capital Markets. In the eight years since he started Key Biscayne, Floridabased UCM, Devaney, 36, has made himself known to prospective clients and trading partners by throwing lavish parties at industry conferences featuring big-name entertainers like rock band Counting Crows and Tonight Show host Jay Leno. He clearly craves the spotlight. At a 1970s-themed benefit he sponsored in November for...
