Who is Soros?

Soros is a well-known American financial tycoon, george soros. George Soros (George Soros)

Name at birth: Hungarian name at birth is Gizzi Szollas (later translated into English as george soros).

Ethnic group: Jews

Place of birth: Budapest, Hungary

Graduate school: 1953, graduated from London School of Economics.

Former partner: jim rogers.

Life enlightener: Soros's teacher; George soros, the life track of British philosopher karl popper, is known as "financial genius". 1969 "Quantum Fund" has made incredible achievements since its establishment, with an average annual compound growth rate of 35%, far behind its Wall Street counterparts. He seems to have a super ability to control the world financial market. His words can make a sudden change in the trading situation of a commodity or currency, and the market price will rise or fall with his words.

Soros is the chairman of the board of directors of LCC Soros Fund, and the Private Investment Management Office confirmed that he is a consultant of Quantum Fund Group. Quantum fund is the oldest and largest fund in the quantum group, and it is generally considered as the best performance of any investment fund in the world in its 28-year history.

Soros received honorary doctorates from the Institute for New Society, Oxford University, Budapest University of Economics and Yale University. 1995, the University of Bologna, Italy awarded Mr. Soros the highest honor-Laurea Honoris in recognition of his efforts to promote the global open society.

The biography of Soros * begins with a trader *-

1930, george soros was born into an upper-middle Jewish family in Budapest. His Hungarian name was Gigi Szollas when he was born, and later he was translated into English as george soros. George soros's father is a lawyer with a strong personality and is very smart. He had a profound influence on Soros as a child. He not only taught Soros self-esteem, strength and self-confidence, but also instilled in Soros the view that too much wealth is a burden on people. Soros did not pay much attention to accumulating wealth in his later years, but put hundreds of millions of wealth into charity, which cannot be said to be the influence of his father.

Soros tried his best to show that he was different when he was young. He has a strong personality. Excellent grades, good at sports, especially swimming, sailing and tennis. He is often a winning general in various competitions. Soros spent his childhood under the care of his parents, and he was very happy.

1944, with the Nazi invasion of Budapest, Soros's happy childhood came to an end, and he and his family began to escape. It was a period full of danger and pain, and the whole family was able to escape the disaster by virtue of their father's shrewdness and strength, fake ID cards and more shelters. This war taught Soros an unforgettable lesson: it is right to take risks, but never take destructive risks.

Later, Soros said that 1944 was the happiest time in his life, and he learned the survival skills from the crisis of life and death. Two of these experiences were very helpful to his speculative career. The first is not afraid of taking risks, and the second is not to gamble all your property when taking risks.

1In the autumn of 947, 17-year-old Soros left Hungary alone and prepared to go to western countries for development. He first went to Bern, Switzerland, and then immediately went to London. He thought he would have a good development in London, but he soon found out how wrong this idea was. He has no money in London, so he can only make a living by doing odd jobs, and life is no fun. Soros can no longer stand living at the bottom of society. A few years later, he decided to change his situation by studying.

1949, Soros began to study at the London School of Economics. At the London School of Economics, although Soros attended the class of 1977 james edward meade, the Nobel laureate in economics, he didn't think he learned anything from it. Karl Popper, a British philosopher, had the greatest influence on Soros during his schooling. Karl Popper encouraged him to think seriously about the way the world works and try to explain the problem from a philosophical point of view. This laid a solid foundation for Soros to establish a new theory of financial market operation.

Once, poverty almost made Soros drop out of school, but the wisdom of the London School of Economics helped Soros overcome loneliness. He found great pleasure in books and thoughts. He also wrote a book, but he didn't finish it, so he put it on hold, because graduation is just around the corner, and no matter how many fantasies young Soros has about the future, he must make a living.

1953 In the spring, Soros graduated from the London School of Economics, but this degree didn't help him. He immediately faced the problem of how to make a living. He went to find any job he could find. At first, he went to a seaside resort in northern England to sell handbags, but he soon found that business was very difficult. This experience made him feel the hardships and difficulties of life, especially the importance of money. He gradually gave up his unrealistic ideas and looked for a job that could provide a high salary. When Soros found it possible to make a lot of money by participating in the investment industry, he sent a letter of recommendation to the investment bank in the city. Finally, Singer & Freedlander Company hired him as an apprentice, and his financial career began.

Soros fell in love with this job and became a trader with great expertise in gold stock arbitrage, especially in making money by using the price difference between different markets. He began to have some money, but the monotony of London could no longer satisfy the growing Soros. He decided to go to new york, the world's largest financial center and a paradise for adventurers!

Soros came to new york with all his $5,000 savings. Through the introduction of acquaintances, he joined F.M.May6r Company (F.M. Ye Mei Company) and became an arbitrage trader, engaged in European securities analysis and providing advice to American financial institutions. At that time, few people were interested in his suggestion.

Although arbitrage has become one of the most popular forms of financial gambling, it was very depressed 30 years ago. No one wants to invest a lot of shares in order to earn millions of dollars from the company's takeover shares. In the 1950s, when life was monotonous, businessmen like george soros could only make a profit by carefully studying and using the tiny price difference of the same stock in different markets to buy at a low price and sell at a high price. But at that time, Europeans only dealt with Europeans and Americans only contacted Americans. This local concept has made Soros profitable and made great contributions to European securities.

1959, Soros switched to Wertheim & Co, which operates overseas business, and continued to engage in European securities business. Fortunately, Wertheim is one of the few American companies that operate overseas. Soros has been one of the few Wall Street traders who carry out arbitrage between new york and London.

1960, Soros conducted a successful experiment on foreign financial markets for the first time, and his sharpness began to appear. After analysis and research, he found that the price of real estate purchased by Allianz Insurance Company in Germany was greatly discounted compared with the asset value, so he suggested that people buy shares of Allianz Company. Morgan Guarantee Company and Dreyfus Fund bought a lot of Allianz shares according to Soros's suggestion. As it turns out, as Soros expected, the value of Allianz's stock tripled, and Soros became famous in one fell swoop.

1963, Soros started to work for Arilhod&S Bleichrocoer Company (Hod Brecher Limited). This company is good at dealing in foreign securities, which suits Soros's appetite and enables him to give full play to his expertise. At first, I mainly engaged in foreign securities analysis. Because of his network in Europe and his ability to speak many European languages, including French and German, Soros naturally became a pioneer in this field. Steven Karen, Soros's employer, also appreciates Soros very much, thinking that he is brave and resourceful and has the ability to open up new business, which is exactly what the arbitrage exchange needs.

* Golden Partner *—

1967, Soros was promoted to the head of the company's research department by virtue of his own talents. Soros is now an excellent investment analyst, and he is constantly creating his own new achievements. Soros's strength lies in his ability to grasp the dynamics of different financial markets around the world from a macro perspective. Through his understanding of the global situation, he judged what impact various financial and political events would have on the global financial market. In order to better display his talents, Soros persuaded the boss of Ariel Arilhold&S.Bleiehlneoer to set up two offshore funds-Eagle Fund and Double Eagle Fund, all of which were handed over to him for operation. These two funds are operating quite well, and Soros has made a lot of money for the company.

But what really brought Soros a major turning point in his future investment career was that he met jim rogers, a graduate of Yale University, and they joined hands. During their 10 years together, they became the best gold partners on Wall Street. Soros and Rogers don't always want to make wedding dresses for others. They are eager to become independent fund managers.

1973, they left Arilhod&S.Bleichrocder Company and founded Soros Fund Management Company. When the company first started operating, there were only three people: Soros was a trader, Rogers was a researcher and one was a secretary. Although the Soros Fund is small in scale, Soros and Rogers are very committed because it is their own company. They subscribed to 30 commercial publications and collected the financial records of more than 65,438+0,500 American and foreign companies. Rogers carefully analyzes and studies 20 to 30 annual financial reports every day in order to find the best investment opportunities. They are also good at seizing every opportunity to make money. For example 1972, Soros took aim at the bank. At that time, the reputation of the banking industry was very poor and its management was very backward. Few investors patronize bank stocks. However, after observation and research, Soros found that professionals who graduated from colleges and universities are becoming a new generation of bankers. They are embarking on a series of reforms, and the profits of banks are still rising gradually. At this time, the value of banking stocks was obviously greatly underestimated by the market, so Soros decisively intervened in banking stocks. After a while, bank stocks began to soar, and Soros made 50% of the profits.

This year, Egypt and Syria invaded Israel on a large scale. Because Israel's weapons and equipment technology was outdated, Israel was hit hard and paid the price of blood. Soros thought from this war that American weapons and equipment may also be outdated, and the US Department of Defense may spend huge sums of money to re-equip the army with new weapons. So Rogers began to hold talks with officials of the Department of Defense and contractors of American military enterprises. The results of the talks made Soros and Rogers more convinced that this was an excellent investment opportunity. Soros Fund began to invest in stocks of companies with large orders from the Ministry of National Defense, such as Northrop, United Aircraft, Glaman and Lockrod, which brought huge profits to Soros Fund.

Soros is unique in that before a stock becomes popular, he can see hope through dark clouds, and he knows why he wants to buy or not. When he finds himself at a disadvantage, he can get out of the predicament.

In addition to the normal investment tactics of buying at a low price and selling at a high price, Soros is also particularly good at short selling. And short selling is Soros's favorite trick. One of the classic cases is Soros's deal with Avon Cosmetics Company. In order to short, Soros borrowed 120 shares of Avon cosmetics company at the market price of 120 dollars per share. After a while, the stock began to plummet. Two years later, Soros bought back 65,438+0,000 shares of Avon Cosmetics Company at a price of $20 per share. From this transaction, Soros earned $ 100 with the profit of $ 100 per share as the fund, almost five times the investment.

Soros admits that he likes to make a profit by winning short selling, which brings him joy after planning. The company bet on several large institutions and then sold them short. Finally, when the stock prices plummeted, the company made a lot of money. Although it seems to others that shorting is too risky, because Soros has done enough research and preparation in advance, his adventure will end in victory in all likelihood.

1975, Soros and Rogers had excellent investment ability and tacit cooperation, and failed every year. Soros Fund grows like quantum. As of 1980, 12, 3 1, Soros Fund increased by 33.65%. Compared with the Standard & Poor's Composite Index, the latter only rose by 47% in the same period. And the name george soros began to attract attention in the Wall Street circle.

1979, Soros decided to rename the company Quantum Fund, which originated from Heisenberg's uncertainty law of quantum mechanics. Because Soros believes that the market is always in an uncertain state, always fluctuating. You can make money by betting on uncertainty. With the expansion of the fund, Soros's career is booming.

1980 was a particularly proud year, and the fund increased by 102.6%, which was the best year for Soros and Rogers to cooperate. At this time, the fund has increased to $38 1 billion, and Soros himself has become a billionaire. But unfortunately, Rogers decided to leave at this time. The best partner on Wall Street, who broke up with 10, somewhat disappointed Soros.

198 1 year, Soros's financial career suffered a great failure. Soros judged that the US bond market would rise sharply, so he bought a lot of long-term bonds with short-term loans borrowed from banks. However, the situation did not develop as Soros expected. On the contrary, due to the strong development of American economy, the interest rate of banks has been rising rapidly, far exceeding the interest rate of public debt. This year, Soros lost 3-5 percentage points per share of public bonds, totaling several million dollars, and the profit of Quantum Fund fell for the first time, with a drop of 22.9%. A large number of investors abandoned him and took away nearly half of the company's assets, about $6,543.8+$93 billion. Soros felt abandoned. He even thought about quitting the market and living a plain life.

* The birth of Soxhlet's investment theory *

Soros finally chose to stay. He began to think about the operation of financial markets from a philosophical point of view. The more I think about it, the more Soros feels that he has been fooled by previous economic theories. Traditional economists believe that the market is rational and its operation has its inherent logic. Because investors can fully understand the situation of listed companies, through a series of rational calculations, they can accurately determine the price of each stock. When investors enter the market, they can rationally choose the best stocks to invest according to this cognition. The stock price will keep rational correlation with the company's future earnings expectation, which is the efficient market hypothesis, which assumes a perfect and rational market, and all stock prices can reflect the currently available information. In addition, some traditional economists also believe that financial markets are always "correct". Market prices can always correctly reflect or reflect the future development trend, even if this trend is still unclear.

After investigating Wall Street, Soros found how unrealistic the previous economic theory was. He believes that the financial market is turbulent and chaotic, and the buying and selling decisions in the market are not based on ideal assumptions, but on investors' expectations, and mathematical formulas cannot control the financial market. However, people's cognition of anything that can actually be obtained is not perfect. Investors' prejudice against a stock, whether positive or negative, will lead to the rise or fall of the stock price. Therefore, the market price is not always correct, and always reflects the future development trend of the market. Often because of investors' one-sided speculation, the possible impact of some factors in the future is ignored. In fact, it is not the current forecast that matches the future events, but the current forecast that creates the future events. Therefore, the reaction of investors after obtaining relevant information cannot determine the stock price. The decisive factor is not so much investors' expectations based on objective data as their own psychological feelings. The price paid by investors is not only a passive reflection of the value of the stock itself, but also a positive factor that determines the value of the stock.

At the same time, Soros also believes that since the operation of the market is from facts to ideas, and then from ideas to facts, once the gap between investors' ideas and facts is too large to correct itself, the market will be in a state of violent fluctuation and instability, and then the market will be prone to a "boom-bust" sequence. The way for investors to make profits is to infer the unexpected situation that will happen soon, judge the occurrence of ups and downs, and move against the trend. But at the same time, Soros also pointed out that the bias of investors will lead to the market's follow-up behavior, and the unbalanced follow-up behavior will eventually lead to the collapse of the market due to excessive speculation.

After forming his own unique investment theory, Soros did not hesitate to abandon the traditional investment theory and decided to test his investment theory with practice in the rapidly changing financial market.

198 1 year, June 5438+10/October, Reagan became president. Through the analysis of Reagan's new policy, Soros was convinced that the American economy would start a new "boom-bust" sequence, and Soros began to invest decisively. As Soros predicted, under the stimulus of Reagan's new policy, the American economy began to prosper. The boom period of the "boom-bust" sequence has begun to appear.

1in the summer of 982, the interest rate of loans dropped and the stock kept rising, which made Soros's quantum fund get huge returns. By the end of 1982, the quantum fund had increased by 56.9%, and its net assets soared from $654.38+93.3 million to $302.8 million. Soros gradually stepped out of the shadow of 198 1.

With the development of American economy, the dollar is getting stronger and stronger, the trade deficit in the United States is rising at an alarming rate, and the budget deficit is also increasing year by year. Soros is convinced that the United States is heading for depression, and an economic storm will endanger the American economy. He decided to have a big fight in the coming storm. He pays close attention to the trend of the government and its market.

With the disintegration of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the price of crude oil began to fall, which brought great depreciation pressure to the dollar. At the same time, with the disintegration of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), inflation in the United States began to decline, and the corresponding interest rates will also fall, which will also promote the depreciation of the US dollar. Soros predicted that the US government would take measures to support the depreciation of the US dollar. At the same time, he also predicted that the German mark and the Japanese yen would appreciate soon, and he decided to go to war.

1September, 985, Soros started to make dollars and yen. His long positions in mark and yen reached $700 million, exceeding the total value of the quantum fund. Because he firmly believed that his investment decision was correct, he boldly increased his long position by almost $800 million after suffering some losses in advance.

Soros has been increasing investment, because he thinks that the short-term change of floating exchange rate only happens at the turning point, and once the trend is formed, it disappears. He wants to make more money by taking advantage of the falling dollar before other speculators realize this turning point. Of course, Soros's premise of increasing investment is that he is convinced that the reversal no longer exists, because once the trend reverses, even temporarily, he will embrace disaster.

On September 22nd 1985, things gradually developed in the direction predicted by Soros. Zhan Mu Baker, the new US Treasury Secretary, and the finance ministers of France, Spain, Japan and Britain met at the new york Plaza Hotel to discuss the depreciation of the US dollar. After the meeting, the finance ministers of the five countries signed the Plaza Agreement. The agreement allows for "orderly valuation" of non-US dollar currencies through "closer cooperation". This means that the central bank must underestimate the value of the dollar and force it to depreciate.

On the first day after the Plaza Agreement was announced, the US dollar was announced to have dropped from 239 yen to 222.5 yen, or 4.3%. On this day, the depreciation of the dollar made Soros earn 40 million dollars overnight. In the following weeks, the dollar continued to depreciate. By the close of 10, the US dollar had fallen by 13%, and the US dollar was exchanged for 205 yen.

The quantum fund increased from $448.9 million in 1984 to $0.003 million in 1985, and its assets increased by 223.4%. With his amazing performance in that year, Soros ranked second among the top 100 people with the highest income on Wall Street in the financial sector. According to the report of this magazine, Soros's income in 1985 reached 93.5 million dollars.

1 September 1986, the US dollar fell to1USD 153 yen. Soros earned about $654.38 +0.5 billion before and after this big financial operation. This made Quantum Fund famous on Wall Street. 1986, Soros's harvest year, the wealth of Quantum Fund increased by 42. L%, reaching $6,543.8 +0.5 billion. Soros personally earned $200 million from the company.

* The pain and significance of failure *—

Although Soros hates losing money, he can bear the pain. For others, mistakes are the source of shame; For him, realizing his mistake is something to be proud of. Because in his view, the cognitive defect of things is the innate companion of human beings, and he will not feel sad and humiliated because of his many mistakes. He is always ready to correct his mistakes so as not to fall down again. He never gets emotional in the financial market, because he understands that rational investors should be calm, not perfect. As he used to say, "If your performance is not satisfactory, the first action you should take is to retreat for progress, not to take risks. And when you start over, you might as well start small. " It is meaningless to blame yourself when you make a mistake in decision-making and cause huge losses. The important thing is to be brave in admitting mistakes, withdraw from the market in time, and minimize losses. Only by retaining the competitive strength can we make a comeback.

Soros has the gift of being more acutely aware of mistakes than others. When he finds that his expected assumptions are different from the actual operation of the event, he will not stand still and will not turn a blind eye to those damn discrepancies. In order to find out the mistake, he will conduct a hysterical investigation. Once he finds his mistake, he will correct his point of view in order to make a comeback. It is precisely because of this valuable quality of Soros that he can always preserve his strength in the turbulent market. The reason why an investor is called a "great investor" is not whether he is always a big winner in the market, but whether he has the courage to admit failure and whether he can stand up from every failure and become stronger. Soros has exactly the characteristics of a "great investor". This is one of the reasons why Soros managed to make the growth rate of Quantum Fund reach 14. 1% after the fiasco of 1987 in June, and the total amount reached1800 million dollars.

Soros is not the kind of person who worships tradition. He has his own unique market theory. He believes that the financial market is turbulent and disorderly, and the operating basis of the stock market is not logic, but psychology. The key to outperforming the market is how to grasp this group psychology. When forecasting the market trend, Soros is good at discovering the interrelation of related markets, which enables him to accurately judge what kind of chain reaction will happen in other related markets once a market fluctuates, thus making profits in multiple markets at the same time.

Soros can make huge profits in the financial market, not only because of his unique market theory, but also because of his superhuman courage. Because Soros believes that the biggest mistake an investor may make is not being too bold and reckless, but being too cautious. Although some investors can accurately predict the market trend, they are always afraid to establish large positions because they are always worried that once the market reverses, they will suffer losses. When the market continues to be optimistic, I regret that I have held too few positions and missed the opportunity to make money. Once Soros predicted the market according to relevant information, he was very confident in his prediction. When he is convinced that his investment decision is beyond reproach, he will not hesitate to build a big position. Of course, to establish a great position, it needs superhuman courage and boldness, otherwise, he will not be able to bear the enormous pressure brought about by it.

1987, God did not always favor Soros. 1987, Soros suffered his "Waterloo". According to Soros's "boom-bust" theory of financial markets, there must be a recession after prosperity. He learned through relevant channels that in the Japanese securities market, many Japanese companies, especially banks and insurance companies, bought shares of other Japanese companies in large quantities. Some companies speculate in stocks in order to enter the market, and even raise funds by issuing bonds. Japanese stocks have been sold at a price-earnings ratio as high as 48.5 times, and the enthusiasm of investors is still heating up. Therefore, Soros believes that the Japanese securities market is about to collapse. However, Soros is more optimistic about the US stock market, because the price-earnings ratio of the US stock market is only 19.7 times, which is far lower than that of Japan, and the share price of the US stock market is still within a reasonable range. Even if the Japanese stock market collapses, the American stock market will not be greatly affected.

1In September 1987, Soros transferred billions of dollars of investment from Tokyo to Wall Street. However, it was not Japan's securities market that collapsed first, but Wall Street in the United States. 19871June19th, the new york Dow Jones average plunged 508 stones and 5 points, setting a historical record at that time. In the next few weeks, the new york stock market went down all the way. The Japanese stock market is relatively strong. Soros decided to sell several large long-term stocks in his hand. After other traders captured the relevant information, they took the opportunity to smash the sold stocks, which reduced the cash discount of futures by 20%.

The discount on 5000 contracts will reach $250 million. Soros lost more than $200 million in one day. It is reported that Soros lost about $650 million to $800 million in the Wall Street crash. The plunge caused the net assets of Quantum Fund to fall by 26.2%, far greater than the decline of US stocks 17%. Soros became the biggest loser of this disaster.

* People who pass through the Bank of England * ———————

Soros, like a leopard on Wall Street, is extremely agile and good at capturing investment opportunities. Once the time is right, he will be ready for battle and react quickly. Although Soros is a well-known master on Wall Street, what really made him known to the outside world were the two major crises in the 1990s, in which Soros was a key figure. One is the Bank of England incident of 1992.

1989 1 1 month, East Germany and West Germany were unified. In the eyes of many people, a unified Germany will soon revive and prosper. 1On February 7th, 1992, the Maastricht Treaty signed by the EU 12 member states even cheered everyone up: the idea of "Greater Europe" is about to take shape. However, after a calm analysis, Soros believes that the new Germany will experience a period of economic difficulties due to the reconstruction of the former East Germany. Germany will pay more attention to its own economic problems and have no time to help other European countries tide over the economic difficulties, which will have a far-reaching impact on the economies and currencies of other European countries. Monetary union is not necessarily a good thing.

Sure enough, less than a year after the treaty was signed, it was difficult for some European countries to coordinate their economic policies. At that time, the British economy was in a long-term downturn, and it was difficult for Britain to maintain a high interest rate policy. The only feasible way to stimulate economic development is to lower interest rates. Although Prime Minister john major has repeatedly stressed the need to safeguard the pound and its position in the European monetary system, Soros believes that this is just a bluff, and he is already secretly preparing to attack.

1992, Soros seized the opportunity and successfully attacked the pound. This rock-breaking move made him accustomed to hiding behind the scenes suddenly focus on the world public and become a world-famous investment master.

For 200 years, the pound has been the main currency in the world. Initially, it adopted the gold standard. When it is linked to gold, the pound occupies an extremely important position in the world financial market. Only World War I and the stock market crash of 1929 forced the British government to abandon the gold standard and adopt the floating system, and the position of the pound in the world market continued to decline. As an important institution to ensure market stability, the Bank of England is a powerful pillar of the British financial system, with extremely rich market experience and strong strength. No one has ever dared to face the financial system of this country directly, or even dare to think about it.