Foreword: I was born poor, but I must not die poor and destitute!
When it comes to Soros, people's first impression is that financial robbers, the culprit of the financial crisis.
In fact, the first half of Soros's life was tormented.
Soros was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1930 under the real name Gyoumlrgy Schwartz. His father was a Jew. Because of Nazi anti-Semitism, Soros lived in the shadow of death in his childhood and adolescence.
In 1944, with the Nazi invasion of Budapest, Soros's happy childhood came to an end, and he began to flee with his family.
Before that, Soros's father, Tidaso, sold his family property and bribed an officer, and escaped the disaster by pretending to be an officer.
As an adult, Soros said, "I am fortunate to have a father who would have died if he had acted according to normal rules." What I've learned in war is that there are times when you can lose anything, even your life, if you don't take the risk. ”
For more than a decade, he faced a long period of death threats, which had a great impact on Soros's belief in life, and he learned survival skills from life and death dangers, two of which were very helpful to his later speculative career:
First, don't be afraid to take risks;
Second, don't bet on all your belongings when taking risks.
In 1947, at the age of 17, Soros went to London alone and suffered. During the porter's process, his leg was smashed. He went to the Jewish Foundation Association to ask for help, but he was impressed by the bad attitude of the Foundation staff.
In 1949, Soros was admitted to the London School of Economics under the advice of the later Nobel laureate in economics, John Mead.
In 1952, Soros received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from the London School of Economics, but Soros did not engage in any philosophical research, but entered the financial industry, engaged in arbitrage activities in commodities and stocks.
However, in the xenophobic British circle at that time, it was impossible to integrate a foreigner like Soros.
In 1956, by chance, Soros came to the United States.
In Europe, people like Soros who understand the European market abound, but in the United States. He's the steamed bun. He is well versed in European markets and knows the movements of European finance. He is proficient in German, French, English, etc., and can communicate with people from all over Europe. Soon, he became a stock trader.
In 1961, Soros met Annalie, a German girl, and the two married.
In 1963, knowing French, German and other European languages, Soros began to engage in foreign securities analysis and became a pioneer in this field.
Since then, Soros has established a double eagle fund for his company and served as a fund manager, and it is in the process of managing the fund that Soros has formed his own financial investment philosophy and ideas.
In 1973, until the age of 43, Soros began to start his own fund, the Soros Fund.
In 7 years, Soros funds have grown by 3365%, becoming the envy and hatred of Wall Street peers.
In 1979, Soros decided to change the company's name to Quanta Fund, stemming from the uncertainty law in quantum mechanics, and at the same time, Soros also established his own foundation, the Open Society Fund.
In 1980, Soros funds grew by 102.6%, the fund has increased to $381 million, and Soros has personally become a billionaire. For various reasons, Soros divorced his wife Annalie.
Now, Soros has the capital to declare war on a larger stage!!!
In 1983, Soros married Susan, a tennis player and Ph.D. in art at the age of 25.
In 1987, when global stock markets suffered Black Monday, Soros chose to do long US stocks and short Japanese stocks, resulting in heavy losses, and in less than two weeks, the quantum fund lost a huge loss of $840 million - Soros decided to admit his mistake and adjust the direction to withdraw from the battle.
In 1988, Soros hired Druckenmiller to handle day-to-day transactions, focusing on his own philanthropic work.
In 1989, the quantum fund rose by 31.5%, and over the next four years, the quantum fund rose by 29.6%, 53.4%, 68.8%, and 63.2%, respectively.
Three major battles!!!
In 1992, Soros fought the Empire without falling.
Soros managed to take $10 out of every Briton's pocket, beating the Bank of England and profiting nearly $1 billion from it.
In 1997, Soros sniped at the Thai baht, triggering a financial tsunami in Southeast Asia.
It is said that when you hear Soros's name in Thailand, you will break out in a cold sweat on your back.
In 1998, he attacked Hong Kong and returned home.
The defense of Hong Kong is the most classic battle of Soros quantum funds, and in the final game stage, it is People's Bank of China to inject funds into Hong Kong, so that the Soros army has suffered a dumb loss.
In the first half of 1999, the rise of Internet technology stocks on the NASDAQ in the United States soon became expensive, and Soros's quantum fund began to short technology stocks - unexpectedly, in the second half of 1999, the price of technology stocks still rose, and the quantum fund lost a mess.
From the end of February to the end of April 2000, in just two months, the Quantum Fund lost 21% – a huge loss of $5 billion!
The Quantum Fund is badly damaged, and the rest of the money is merged into the Quantum Endowment Fund – according to Soros, the "Quantum Endowment Fund" will change its investment strategy, mainly engaged in low-risk, low-return arbitrage transactions.
In 2007, when the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis worsened, Soros immediately took charge of the endowment fund himself, and by shorting the bonds, the return was as high as 32% that year.
In 2008, when the market was in mourning, Soros once again achieved an 8% return on investment; And this year, the overall hedge fund performance was -19%!
From 2009 to 2010, Soros' fund consistently achieved high returns of more than 20%, earning $3 billion in 2010 alone.
On July 27, 2011, Soros announced the end of more than four decades as a hedge fund manager, with a $25.5 billion fund manager returning funds to outside investors, after which he would focus on his family fund.
From 2011 to 2012, he used his family funds to short the yen, making more than a billion dollars.
In 2013, the Soros Family Fund set a record investment return of US$5.5 billion.
Since its inception, Soros' fund has generated $40 billion in total returns for itself and its investors, making it one of the world's most powerful hedge funds.
In September 2013, Soros married a Japanese-American woman, Tomiko Bolton.
On January 22, 2015, Soros announced at the Davos Economic Forum dinner that he would be the ultimate retirement to promote philanthropy.
Soros quotes:
"The history of the world economy is a series based on illusions and lies. To gain wealth, the way to get rich is to recognize the illusion, throw yourself into it, and then quit the game before the illusion is known to the public. ”
"Everything always booms and falls, the important thing is to recognize the trend change, the point is to find the turning point; It's okay to take risks, but when taking risks, don't gamble on all your possessions; People make mistakes not because they don't understand, but because they think they understand everything. ”
"I'm rich only because I know when I'm wrong and I basically 'survive' by realizing my mistakes... We should realize that human beings are like this: there is no shame in being wrong, and there is no shame in not being able to correct one's mistakes. ”
In retrospect, perhaps "without the suffering of that other person... ”