William A. Lupien

William A. Lupien (born Oct. 6, 1941, died April 15, 2021) was a giant in the US financial industry.  His experiences included being a Specialist on the Pacific Stock Exchange (PSE), a Nasdaq market maker, the Chairman and CEO of Instinet (the first electronic trading market), the Chairman and CEO of OptiMark Corporation, the General Partner of a hedge fund, and the Chief Investment Officer of Till Capital Corporation, a publicly traded company.  He was a pioneer in several aspects of financial markets, including the introduction of electronic trading.

Mr. Lupien was born in Chicago, IL, where he lived until age 16.  He moved to Pasadena, CA, where he graduated from John Muir High School in 1959.  He then attended Pasadena City College and San Diego State University, where he graduated in 1965 with dual Bachelor of Science degrees in finance and marketing.  He married Bonnie Henderson in 1964, with whom he enjoyed 57 years of married life.  He is survived by Bonnie, a daughter Susan, her husband Brian, their two grandchildren, Grant and Troy, as well as a son, Rod Snyder and his wife Natalia.

As a lifelong participant in the financial markets, Mr. Lupien executed several million trades over the course of his career and was legendary for his prowess as a trader and investor.  He was a major innovator in the financial industry, particularly in the field of electronic trading, which is now ubiquitous throughout the world.  He executed the first electronic stock trade in history in 1969, on a system whose design he pioneered in the face of substantial opposition from some of his colleagues.  He also was instrumental in founding the Pacific Options Exchange in San Francisco in 1976.

In 1983, Mr. Lupien became the Chairman and CEO of Instinet, the first electronic trading system for institutional investors and wholesale brokers.  During his tenure, Instinet’s trading volume grew over 100% per annum for 5 straight years.  During his time with Instinet, he introduced electronic trading to numerous exchanges around the world.  Instinet became the subject of two Harvard Business School case studies.

Mr. Lupien teamed up with Dr. Terry Rickard in 1993, and they jointly designed and developed the OptiMark trading system.  In the latter half of the 1990s, OptiMark raised over $350 million in venture capital from numerous sources, including many prominent financial firms, to build and operate its novel transaction system as a facility of multiple exchanges, including the PSE, Nasdaq and the Osaka Securities Exchange in Japan.  OptiMark’s revolutionary design resulted in several patents on its trading technology.  In addition to its transaction technology for stock exchanges, OptiMark also developed and patented a novel electronic system for the opening and intraday trading in options exchanges.  OptiMark was the subject of a Harvard Business School case study.

Later in his career, Mr. Lupien was the general manager of a hedge fund and then became the Chief Investment Officer for Till Capital Corporation, a publicly listed company, a position he held until his death.  He served as a board member for Till Capital and for Silver Predator Corporation for multiple years.  He also was the financial advisor to IG Tintic LLC, a private gold producer based in the historic East Tintic District of Utah and was on the advisory board of another private company, Jacob Stern & Sons.

Mr. Lupien was instrumental in the development of automated algorithmic trading systems, which he considered to be one of his most important legacies, as it embodied his philosophy of trading into novel artificial intelligence algorithms.  He co-authored (with David Nassar) the book Market Evaluation and Analysis for Swing Trading and taught electronic trading courses to numerous friends.

In December 1999, Mr. Lupien was featured in a week-long CNBC television series special program on five individuals who changed the course of the securities industry in the 20 ^th century (others included in this special were J.P. Morgan and Charles Schwab).

Mr. Lupien was a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and a board member of numerous private and public companies over the course of his career.  He also served on several philanthropic boards, including YMCA, Union Rescue Mission (Los Angeles), and Ft. Lewis College Professional Associates.  He was a guest lecturer in the business schools of multiple universities, including Harvard, Wharton, NYU, University of Chicago, Cornell, USC, San Diego State University, and Ft. Lewis College.

Mr. Lupien had lifelong interests in ranching, hunting, and fishing.  He made numerous trips to Africa and enjoyed travelling to many locations throughout the world, often accompanied by his family members.  Throughout his life, he was known for his creativity, innovation, generosity, and a desire to pass on his knowledge and experience to future generations. He will be sorely missed by his family, friends, and colleagues, but his seminal contributions to the world will continue.