Name Larry Williams Role Author | Grandchildren Matilda Ledger | |
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Children Michelle Williams, Paige Williams, Jason Williams, Kelley Williams, Sara Williams Parents Richard Sigwart Williams, Sylva Berthea Books Long‑term secrets to short‑ter, How I Made One Million D, The definitive guide to f, The right stock at the right time, Sure thing commodity trading Similar People Michelle Williams, Matilda Ledger, Heath Ledger | ||
Larry Richard Williams (born October 6, 1942) is an American author, stock and commodity trader, and politician from the state of Montana. He is the father of four-time Academy Award and one-time Tony Award nominee actress Michelle Williams.
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Early life
Williams was born in Miles City, Montana, on October 6, 1942, the son of Sylva Berthea (née Brurs) and Richard Sigwart Williams. He is of Norwegian, German, and English ancestry. In 1960, he graduated from Billings High School, in Billings, Montana. There he was active in sports, on the all-state football team, and was the sports editor of the school paper. He is a graduate of the School of Journalism, class of 1964 at the University of Oregon in Eugene. Williams was a member of Alpha Delta Sigma (Honorary Professional Fraternity) while at Oregon and served as National President. He is also a member of Sigma Chi at the University of Oregon and received the fraternity's highest national award, "Significant Sig", along with Andy Rooney, Brad Pitt and many other notable members.
Williams was one of the founders of the "Rock and Roll Marathons" that have raised in excess of $320 million for charities throughout the world.
Career
Williams is the author of eleven books, most on stocks and commodity trading. Other books include The Mount Sinai Myth, based on an archeological search for Mt. Sinai in Egypt. This book was featured in Vanity Fair in a re-write by Howard Blum.
Confessions of a Radical Tax Protestor discusses his battle with the Internal Revenue Service, which led to a trial on three charges of tax evasion. On February 5, 2010 those charges were dropped and he pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor charges of failing to file income tax returns on time (for tax years 1999, 2000, and 2001).
Williams funds a six-figure scholarship at the University of Oregon in honor of his college professor, Max Wales, restricted to "journalism and communication students who... have demonstrated creative talent, but may not have a high grade point average."
Williams has created numerous market indicators including Williams %R, Ultimate Oscillator, COT indices, accumulation/distribution indicators, cycle forecasts, market sentiment and value measurements for commodity prices. Williams won the 1987 World Cup Championship of Futures Trading from the Robbins Trading Company, where he turned $10,000 to over $1,100,000 (10,900%) in a 12-month competition with real money. Ten years later his daughter, actress Michelle Wiliams, won the same contest.
In November 2014, at the Traders Expo in Las Vegas, Larry Williams recorded a series of four videos discussing his 50+ years of trading. He covered topics such as indicators, risk management, COT data etc. The videos are made available and archived.
Williams' son, psychiatrist Jason Williams, has written a book on the personality of winning traders, The Mental Edge in Trading.
Politics
Williams was twice the Republican Party nominee to the United States Senate in Montana. In 1978 he defeated Bill Osborne and Clancy Rich in the Republican primary with 35,479 votes (61.66%), and then lost to Democratic U.S. Representative Max Baucus in the general election by 160,353 votes (55.69%) to 127,589 (44.31%). In 1982, he defeated attorney Willie Dee Morris in the primary by 49,615 votes (88.11%) to 6,696 (11.89%), and was then defeated in the general election by incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator John Melcher by 174,861 votes (54.46%) to 133,789 (41.67%).
He sponsored Initiative 86, which made Montana the first state to index tax brackets for inflation.