Bill Stearn is a trader at Axe Capital and is one of Axe's most trusted and profitable traders in the firm. He has consistently been profitable through frequently resorting to insider trading and other legally dubious measures in order to create high returns for the firm. His nickname "Dollar Bill" derives from the fact he has a one-dollar bill taped to his computer monitor as his good luck charm as well as his frugal lifestyle.
Personality and Character[]
Bill with Bobby Axelrod
'Dollar' Bill is one of Bobby Axelrod's most trusted Traders who is consistently able to provide Axe with accurate information. Bill prefers to have definitive information on the direction of a stock and is the least speculative trader among Axe Capital. Whenever Bobby asks Bill his level of certainty on a trade, Bill usually replys with his trademark phrase, "I am not uncertain." He will even go so far as to personally intervene whenever there is a potential for a trade to be unsuccessful such as when he travels to Arkansas and comes up with a plan to infect and kill hundreds of thousands of chickens to drive up the price of poultry.
Most, if not all of Bill's information is acquired via exploiting legal grey areas such as socially engineering a farmer to unwittingly divulge insider information or outright illegal methods such as physically breaking into a warehouse to verify excess inventory that would indicate a company's poor sales.
Bill is also fiercely loyal to the firm and to Axe, even going to the point of sending his wife a detailed message about his other family to avoid Chuck Rhoades from being able to use the information as leverage against him. In another instance he pre-emptively starts to strip down in front of Bobby in public in order to show that he's not wearing a wire when he presses Bobby about conducting trades while Bobby is under investigation.
Bill is brutally honest, often to a fault. He speaks his mind to everyone up to and including Bobby himself despite what they may think. He is often disrepsectful and rude to most of his fellow traders, only seeming to respect those who are high earners for Axe Capital like himself.
Bill values profit above almost all else and refuses to take a loss under any circumstances. His ego and confidence are nearly shattered when it becomes apparent that a long position on a chicken index will prove to be unsuccessful. So determined to avoid a loss, he devises a plan to infect the poultry supply and has to be talked out of it by Axe and Wags, with the former telling him, "I can't belive I'm saying this, but sometimes it's ok to take a loss." When Axe Capital's assets are frozen, Bill is by far the most frustrated employee from not being able to conduct trades. When Craig Heidecker dies in a shuttle explosion, Bill is the first to celebrate because of Axe Capital's short position on the company. He is even able to put aside his general disdain for certain individuals if he sees a way to make money. When Spyros, first arrives at Axe Capital. Bill is mercilessly abusive toward him even going to the point of intentionally crashing into Spyro's Porsche and eventually convincing Bobby to fire him. When he discovers Spyros has an idea to exploit companies under SEC investigation by shorting those that will likely end up in convictions and going long on those where a conviction is unlikely, he convinces Bobby to give Spyros his job back.
Despite being one of Axe Capital's highest earners, Bill is noted for his incredibly frugal lifestyle relative to his wealth. While most Axe Capital employees drive luxury vehicles, wear high end clothes, and enjoy extravagent social lives, Bill drives a minivan, has two separate familes that he takes care of, and can usually be seen wearing his typical khaki pants and blue jacket. He is shown to not even be willing to pay for a newspaper and while he could most certainly afford valet parking, he instead chooses to use street parking. When Taylor signs off on research that helps facilitate one of Bill's deals, Bill gives Taylor a bag of cash stating it's the first time he's ever given away his own money.
Bill posseses strong street smarts which no doubt help him when obtaining information. When Bobby stages a fake SEC raid at Axe Capital, Bill is the only one who "passes" by refusing to say a word instead asking for a lawyer repeatedly. He is the only person to come away relatively unscathed when under investigation and Chuck's investigators note how "clean" Bill's record and past appear. When Bill is evading Chuck's team, he pays cash for all his hotels and purchases and is only located when his stingey nature causes him to use his hotel rewards card. It is also revealed that Bill stashes away large sums of physical cash "just in case" when he instructs Taylor to do the same. When Bobby is under investigation, he goes to see Bill at a dry cleaning establishment that he owns. When Bobby asks him why he would "own such a dump", Bill implies that it's to launder his money.