Teamwork Pays

Campbell Black says suiting up for the Wildcats prepared him well for a career in options trading.

The December graduate played parts of five seasons on special teams and as a backup linebacker for the Northwestern football team. After graduation Black, of Oklahoma City, interviewed with five Chicago trading firms before landing as an associate at Spot Trading, a fast-growing Chicago-based off-floor trading firm.

He’ll spend much of the rest of the year in the Spot Training Program, learning the ropes at the proprietary options firm. “We’re investing the firm’s capital,” Black says, “so you have to know everything inside and out.”

The team environment at Spot appealed to the former Wildcat. “Competition is a factor for sure,” he says, “but at Spot we trade in groups. If the firm does well, everyone does well.”

Football prepared him in other ways as well — he knows the importance of discipline and pregame planning and preparation. But Black says the most enduring lesson he learned as a Wildcat was the willingness to accept criticism.

“‘Be coachable,’ the coaches would always say. It’s the same deal when you are a new employee,” Black says. “If someone criticizes you for something, it’s business. You learn from that and don’t let it bother you psychologically.”

Black became interested in trading after taking a class with Stephen M. Levin, a lecturer in Northwestern’s Business Institutions Program and an independent broker and member of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Black, a communication major at Northwestern, has entrepreneurial aspirations.

— Sean Hargadon