Greetings! Who is George Soros? On the one hand, the famous philanthropist, politician, investor and even philosopher. On the other hand, he is a ruthless speculator, a supporter of the legalization of soft drugs and a sponsor of the opposition in various countries.

Getting acquainted? George Soros: The biography of the man who brought down the Bank of England.

George Soros is not the real name of the billionaire. At birth, he was named Gyorgy Schwarz. The legendary investor was unlucky three times: he was born into a Jewish family in Budapest in the mid-1930s.

During the Nazi occupation, the family survived only thanks to George's father, a lawyer and Esperanto specialist. He forged documents for the whole family, changing the Jewish surname to a Hungarian one.

In 1947, Soros ended up in the UK, where he successfully graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science. His idol was the Austrian lecturer, philosopher and anti-communist Karl Popper with his concept of an "open society". The main message of the theory: in an open society, people make decisions using intelligence and critical thinking.

After graduation, the future billionaire “looks for himself” for some time. In his youth, he manages to work as a salesman, a waiter in a restaurant, an apple picker, a station porter and an assistant manager at a haberdashery factory.

Unfortunately, it was almost impossible to get a job in the financial sector without patrons (and even a Jew) at that time.

The beginning of a financial career

In 1956, a friend of his father invited Soros to move to the United States. There, young George learns the secrets of buying and selling securities at a Wall Street brokerage.

Even then, Soros did not like to work according to the knurled pattern. He comes up with a new way of trading - internal arbitrage. The bottom line: to sell separately securities from a package of bonds, powers of attorney and shares before they are officially divided.

Around the same time, George creates his own theory: “market reflection”, which he later describes more than once in his books. The main idea: the future price of any asset depends not only on political and economic changes, but also on the psychology of the crowd.

The day when any currency "dies" can be organized artificially. You just need to correctly use the world's media and put pressure on analysts and traders. Looking ahead, I will say that Soros subsequently applied the theory of "market reflection" in practice. The financial crises caused by it destroyed the lives of thousands of people and seriously affected the economies of individual countries.

In 1970, the legendary hedge fund Quantum was born. George Soros co-founded it with Jim Rogers. What does the foundation do? It attracts funds from a narrow circle of people and invests them in high-yield assets.

The history of Quantum resembles a cardiogram with sharp ups and downs. But in general, the results of the fund's work are impressive. Quantum investors earned about $32 billion from investments in the fund. By the way, this is a confident first place in terms of profit in the entire history of hedge funds.

The legend of the "black environment"

I'll start from afar. In October 1990, Soros met Stanley Druckenmiller, a Wall Street fund manager. Despite the fact that the age difference is 30 years, the financiers have become friends. Two years later, 32-year-old Stanley Druckenmiller headed the legendary Quantum Fund.

How did Soros and his friend collapse the pound? In the early 90s, both of them bought government bonds and British currency a little bit. In the fall of 1992, the pound was steadily declining throughout the week. Friends-speculators decided to make money on it. Soros added a personal capital of £5bn to the fund's money. And put a short position for a total amount of more than 10 billion pounds.

The British currency immediately collapsed to a minimum. Having bought the pound at the lowest price, Soros earned more than one billion on the deal! An impressive premium for the collapse of the currency of the largest European country.

By his speculation, George forced the Bank of England to make a large injection of foreign exchange from government reserves. And he took the pound out of the European currency regulation mechanism.

In 1993, Soros again became famous throughout the world. He was recognized as the most successful investor in the investment market. In a year, Soros earned an amount equal to the GDP of 43 states or the income of the largest McDonald's corporation.

In 1997, Soros decided to repeat the "British collapse" in South Asia, attacking the currencies of Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore. The financial panic in Asian markets provoked a deep economic crisis. The Prime Minister of Malaysia directly accused Soros of destabilizing the country. As a result of the attack, the Malaysian economy was thrown back 15 years and barely recovered from the blow.

During his financial career, George Soros pulled off a lot of dubious deals. For example, he bought MGM shares with a limit of $1.35 million. Before reaching a certain price, the deal was closed automatically. Soros bought shares 60 days before the massacre at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas.

Speculator's catastrophic mistakes

George Soros' biggest financial failure has to do with Russia. In 1997, together with the Russian oligarch Potanin, he created the Mustcom offshore and bought a 25% stake in Svyazinvest through it.

And in 1998, a default struck in Russia. All prices have tripled. On the purchase and sale of Svyazinvest, the legendary speculator lost $1.25 billion.

The "Russian failure" was Soros' first major failure. Others followed. In 1999, George confidently predicted a fall in the assets of Internet companies - and lost $ 700 million on this. A little later, the speculator mistakenly bet on the growth of the euro - and became poorer by another $ 300 million.

The total loss of Soros for 1999 exceeded $1.5 billion. Clients began to massively withdraw their investments from funds. For so many years, this was the most crushing blow to the reputation of the legendary speculator. But Soros managed to stop the process. He was even able to attract new investors by investing in the same internet companies, this time bullish. By 2000, Quantum Fund's turnover had grown to $10.5 billion.

However, unexpectedly for everyone, the NASDAQ index fell seriously. In April 2000, the Soros Foundation lost $5 billion, 2.5 times more than in 1999. In 2004, the billionaire liquidates the fund. And in 2011, he officially “retires”, having completed 40 years of work in the field of hedge fund management. From that moment on, the legendary speculator and philanthropist is engaged only in personal projects and manages exclusively family capital.

Nevertheless, according to the results of 2012, Soros is ranked 30th in the list of the richest people in the world (with a fortune of $19.2 billion).

P.S. My favorite quote from George Soros: "Success requires leisure - time that belongs entirely to you."

We continue to publish articles about the success stories of famous people. George Soros- no doubt a well-known financier and investor. At the time of this article's publication, he has also become involved in philanthropy. George Soros is known not only as an investor (like), but also as a speculator. George Soros is treated ambiguously all over the world. But everyone agrees that this is an extraordinary and interesting person.

George Soros was born on August 12, 1930 to a Jewish family in Budapest. Father Tivadar Soros (Shorosh) was a lawyer and tried to engage in the publishing business. Soros' father fought in World War I against Russia and was captured by the Russians, eventually spending three years in the camps. This is probably the reason why his son George Soros dislikes Russia and Russians. This follows from numerous media publications.

George Soros was a talented child and learned not only his native Hungarian, but also German, English and French. Also, Soros was fond of sports in childhood and played Capital (this is a variation on the theme of the Monopoly game). Classmates remembered George Soros as a man with a tough, aggressive and domineering character.

During the Second World War, Soros's father was engaged in forging documents, which saved many Jews from death. Those who did nothing were at greater risk than those who risked forging documents. Soros Jr. learned this life lesson. As he says: sometimes you can lose everything, including your own life, if you do not take risks.

After the Second World War, George Soros moved to England, where he worked as a waiter. It also happened that he finished eating food for the guests, because. was completely broke. How many post-war years George Soros spent in poverty and doing odd jobs. For example, he worked at picking apples, and also painted something there.

1949 George enters the London School of Economics, where he listened to lectures by very talented teachers. As a result, Soros not only became interested in economics, but also in philosophy. In particular, he was interested in the book The Open Society and Its Enemies. According to the future billionaire, philosophy, however paradoxical it may sound, can really help make money.

At 22, Soros received a degree in economics and this did not help him much in moving up the career ladder. Nevertheless, he sent his resume to a number of investment companies, and in one of them Soros was offered a trainee position. It was there that Soros got a taste for stock trading. Subsequently, the young investment banker moved to New York, where he got a job in an investment firm and began to engage in foreign exchange trading.

In 1963, Soros got a job at Arnold & Blackhreder, America's leading foreign injection firm. That's what came in handy knowledge of George Soros several European languages ​​and connections in the Old World.

Previously, it was believed that economic phenomena are objective. However, according to George Soros, if we consider economics to be a science, then we must be objective. So, the participants in economic processes (people, households and firms - they all do not always behave rationally. Therefore, Soros understood that our opinion about stock markets and financial markets have little in common with what is actually happening there.

Soon, George Soros, with the support of Arnold and Blackhreder, will establish an offshore investment fund and entrust the management of this fund to Soros. He understood that she was much better able to invest than to work among the top management. Subsequently, Soros invested both personal money and the money of many of his clients through offshore companies. Offshore funds allowed tax evasion.

In the early seventies, many of the wolves on Wall Street were not doing well. At the same time, George Soros was an exception to the rule, and his investments grew in price sometimes by tens of percent a year. George Soros bought up shares of companies from Europe and Asia and tried to buy real pearls of business for a penny. Soros also became famous for collapsing the British pound sterling. It is unclear what was the cause and what was the effect. In any case, we know for sure that Soros sold the British pounds on the eve of the collapse of this currency. Together with the talented financier, his investors also grew rich rapidly. By 1980, the Soros Foundation had never closed a year with a loss for 12 consecutive years without exception, and in 1980, his fund showed a growth rate of 102% per annum. But later there were also bad years. In the 80s, Soros became more actively involved in speculation, influencing the dynamics of the markets, as well as the exchange rates of entire states, because. the amount of managed funds has already become significant. On these fluctuations in stocks and currencies, Soros earned a lot of money.

Soros' talent is hard to deny. For example, in the press there was a publication that in 1993 alone, George Soros earned more money than the McDonald's company, which at that time employed 169,000 employees. Financial World writes that Soros made the most money on Wall Street that year.

George Soros' Secret of Success

Analysts believe that one of the main reasons for the success of George Soros was his excellent and sharp mind. He sees cause and effect relationships well and is therefore able to make forecasts in the markets and use this knowledge.

Another important quality of George Soros is the ability to make tough decisions quickly. Active risk management in a dynamic environment requires decisiveness and does not tolerate much thought. At the same time, the work is going on with huge sums. According to many financiers, in order to work with such huge money, you need to have iron balls.

At the same time, Soros's temperament is such that in case of a mistake he does not lose his mind, but remains in his sober mind, knows how to admit his mistake and exit the game in time, fixing losses.

Those who worked for Soros say that he has a very developed intuition. I think that this intuition has developed with experience in the market for decades. Also, many say that George Soros is characterized by self-discipline, as well as an understanding that both objective and subjective factors act on the markets.

Perhaps also one of the reasons for the success of a talented investor was his circle of friends - the leaders of states, who could provide valuable information for investment when communicating.

In 1997, Soros made a mistake with the Russian stock market. Investments in Russia's Svyazinvest on the eve of the financial collapse in Russia amounting to almost two billion dollars were a serious mistake. Then there were serious miscalculations regarding the dot-com bubble. Ultimately, Soros decided he had lost his senses and moved away from actively managing big deals.

George Soros and Philanthropy

Soros is known as a person who is actively involved in charity work. And the first charitable foundation back in 1979. For a long time, Soros was also involved in charity work, including in Russia. Some people believe that charitable activities in Russia are a cover for some kind of espionage business, or that the opposition used to be funded in this way. There are similar opinions about Soros funds and from residents of other countries.

Is George Soros an enemy of Russia?

Soros is also accused that, under the guise of charitable activities, scientific developments created during the USSR were exported to Russia, helping the so-called brain drain. Soros himself does not deny that he purposefully financed the forces directed against the Soviet state. For some reason, Soros is against the current political system in Russia. Perhaps the reason is that his father was a prisoner in Russia for several years or maybe he really believes in an "open society".

Bottom line, Soros is a talented financier and investor, but his activities in relation to Russia raise big questions.

George Soros- American financier, investor and philanthropist. A supporter of the theory of an open society and an opponent of "market fundamentalism". His activities are controversial in different countries and different circles of society. Voluntarily parting with part of his wealth, George Soros managed to leave a mark in many areas outside the world of finance and to some extent even influence the course of history. Investor and speculator George Soros also managed to become famous as a philanthropist, and as a philosopher and as a politician with very liberal views.

The childhood and youth of George Soros

George Soros (Gyorgy Shorosh) was born in Budapest on August 12, 1930 in a Jewish family of average income. George's father, Tivadar Shorosh, was a lawyer and publisher (he tried to publish a magazine in Esperanto). In 1914, Tivadar volunteered for the front, was captured by the Russians and was exiled to Siberia, where he spent three years - from the first days of the revolution in 1917 until the end of the civil war in 1920, from where he fled back to his native Budapest.

If George's father taught him the art of survival, then his mother, Elizabeth, instilled in her son a love for art as such. George liked drawing and painting more, and to a lesser extent music. Although the family spoke Hungarian, he also learned German, English and French.

The boy excelled in sports, especially swimming, sailing and tennis. He was fond of all kinds of games. He especially liked to play "capital" - the Hungarian version of the American game "monopoly". From the age of 7, he often played this game with other children and almost always won. Worst of all was George Litvin. Mutual friends were not surprised to learn that George Soros had become a virtuoso financier, and Litvin ... a historian.

At school, George studied either well or badly. Classmate Miklos Horn: “George was a cheeky, even offhand guy, and I was quiet and calm. He loved fights. He even became a good boxer. According to Miklós Horn, “George was far from being a brilliant student. Rather average. But his tongue was great." And classmate Ferenc Nagel recalls: “George was often cheeky with his elders. If he believed in something, he defended his faith unwaveringly. He was tough and domineering."

When World War II began in September 1939, George was 9 years old. The threat of a German invasion of Hungary began to emerge. By the spring of 1944, the Nazis had killed most of the Jews in Europe. There were growing fears that the turn would reach the largest community of millions of Hungarian Jews in Eastern Europe. Hiding has become a way of life. The basement, surrounded by solid stone walls, served as a refuge. Often they lived for weeks in the attics and basements of their friends' houses, not even knowing if they would have to leave in the morning.

Soros admitted to his biographer that the best year of his life was 1944, when he and his family were in mortal danger. In that year, George Soros saw his father's deadly forgery save the lives of his family and many others, while hundreds of thousands of Jews were exterminated by the Nazi regime. “I was lucky that my father was one of those who did not act as people usually do,” says George Soros. “If you act normally, you will most likely die. Many Jews then did not take any action to hide or leave the string. And my family is lucky. My father was not afraid to take risks. The life lesson that I learned during the war is that sometimes you can lose everything, even your own life, if you don’t take risks.”

Emigration to England

In the autumn of 1945 he returned to school, but he believed that he should immediately leave Hungary for the West. Exactly two years later, in the fall of 1947 (at the age of 17), he left the country alone. George first stayed in Bern, Switzerland, but soon moved to London. Thanks to the help of his father, there was enough money for the journey. But now he had to rely only on himself, and even on transfers from his aunt, who managed to move to Florida.

In England, George Soros took a job as a waiter at the Quallino restaurant in Myfair, where London aristocrats and movie stars dined lavishly and danced the night away. Sometimes, being completely broke, the future billionaire ate the rest of the cakes for the visitors. Many years later, he enviously remembered the owner's cat, which, unlike him, ate sardines.

George's occupations changed frequently, but remained casual. In the summer of 1948, he took a job on a farm as part of the "Put Your Hands on the Earth" program. Soros was picking apples in Suffolk. He also worked as a painter, and then more than once boasted to his friends what a good painter he was. Odd jobs, poverty and loneliness gave little reason for fun, and for all subsequent years Soros could not get rid of depressing memories.

Like Freud and Einstein In 1949, George Soros entered the London School of Economics. He attended some lectures by Harold Lasky and studied for a year with John Mead, who won the 1977 Nobel Prize in Economics.

Although Soros graduated in two years, he hung around the school for another year before graduating in the spring of 1953. After reviewing the book The Open Society and Its Enemies, he tracked down its author, the philosopher Karl Popper, wanting to learn more. Popper was a famous philosopher who wanted to pass on his wisdom to the aspiring intellectual. But he was by no means willing to help Soros succeed in life. According to Popper and many others, philosophy is not meant to indicate how to make money.

But to George Soros, philosophy seemed suitable for this very purpose. Later, he would move from theory to practice: he would develop a theory about how and why people think the way they did and not otherwise, and on the basis of this he would derive new theories about the functioning of the money market.

…At 22, a degree in economics did little for Soros. He took on any job, starting with selling bags in Blackpool - a seaside resort in the north of England. But trade was given with great difficulty. Even during graduation, Soros' intuition told him that big money could be made in the investment business. Trying to get a job in one of the investment banks in London, George randomly sent letters to all the banks in the capital. When Singer & Friedlander offered an internship, Soros happily accepted. With the ardor of a beginner, he began trading gold mining stocks, trying to capitalize on the difference in their market value in different markets. Although George did not do very well, he felt at home in this world and discovered a taste for working in the money markets. In 1956, a young investment banker decided it was time to get ready to hit the road - to New York.

Moving to New York

Shortly after arriving in the US, one of his London colleagues helped George get a job. A call to one of the partners of the investment firm F.M. Mayer - and Soros began to engage in currency arbitrage. He was a pioneer. “What George did 35 years ago has only come into vogue here in the last decade,” noted Stanley Druckenmiller, Soros’s right-hand man since 1988.

“In the early 1960s, no one knew anything,” Soros recalled with a smile. - Therefore, I could attribute any indicators to the European companies that I pushed here. This is exactly the case when the blind leads the blind.”

In 1963, Soros began working at Arnold & S. Bleichroeder, one of the leading American companies in the field of investments abroad. His wide connections in Europe and the ability to communicate fluently in five languages, including German and French, were very useful to him for successful work in this area.

Previous theorists of the stock market decided that the price of stocks is determined mainly in a rational way. Rationalists argued that if investors have all the information about a company, then each share of the latter can be valued in accordance with its true price. But George Soros looked at things deeper. He believed that if economics is a science, then it must be objective. That is, economic actions can be passively observed without affecting these actions themselves. But this, according to Soros, is impossible in practice. How can economics claim to be objective if people - namely, they are the final subjects of economic action - are not objective? If these people, by virtue of their participation in economic life, cannot but influence this life itself?

…Those who recognize the rationality and logic of economic life also argue that the financial markets are always right. At least in the sense that market prices tend to take into account future events, even when their possible course is not entirely clear. According to Soros, this is simply impossible: “Any opinion about future events is biased. I do not mean to say that facts and opinions exist independently of each other. Quite the contrary, and I argued this in a more detailed exposition of the theory of reflexivity, opinions change facts.

Creation of the first fund, the second…

Prior to Kennedy's introduction of a surcharge on foreign investment, this type of activity brought in a good income. After that, Soros' business was destroyed overnight, and he returned to philosophy. From 1963 to 1966, he tried to rewrite the dissertation, which he began working on after business school and returned to writing his treatise The Heavy Burden of Consciousness, but the demanding George Soros was not satisfied with his brainchild, as he believed that he was simply conveying the thoughts of his great teacher.

In the end, while working at Arnold & Bleichroeder, where he rose to the rank of vice president, George Soros decided that he was much more talented as an investor than as a philosopher or top manager. In 1967, he managed to convince the management of Arnold & Bleichroeder to establish several offshore funds and entrust him with the management of them.

The first foundation, called First Eagle, was founded in 1967. The second, already so-called "Hedge Fund" - "Double ing" arose in 1969. George started out with $250,000 of his own. Soon, another six million dollars came from several wealthy European acquaintances. Soros soon managed to attract an international clientele of wealthy Arabs, Europeans and Latin Americans. Although Soros ran the fund from headquarters in New York, like many offshore funds, Double Eagle was registered on the island of Curaçao (Antilles, the Netherlands), where it turned out to be out of reach for taxes.

If the early 1970s ended badly for many on Wall Street, George Soros was a welcome exception. From January 1969 to December 1974, the fund's shares almost tripled in price - from 6.1 million to 18 million dollars. In 1976, the Soros fund grew by 61.9%. Then in 1977, when the Dow fell 13%, the Soros fund rose another 31.2%.

Soros bought up Japanese, Canadian, Dutch and French stocks. For a time in 1971, a quarter of his fund's assets were invested in Japanese stocks. One of his former employees said this: "Like any good investor, he tries to buy nickels for a penny."

In 1979, Soros renamed his Double Eagle Foundation. Now it was called "Quantum" - in honor of the uncertainty principle discovered by Heisenberg in quantum mechanics. Soros really excelled in the foreign exchange market. He sold the British pounds on the eve of their depreciation. He actively traded in English government bonds, the so-called gold-edged papers, which were in great demand, since they could be bought in parts. Soros bought these bonds, according to rumors, for a billion dollars, earning about 100 million at once.

By 1980, 10 years after the creation of the Doble Eagle hedge fund (Quantum), Soros had achieved an unprecedented increase in the value of assets - by 102.6%. By that time, their price had risen to $381 million. By the end of 1980, Soros's personal fortune was estimated at $100 million.

Ironically, the main beneficiaries of Soros' talent, besides the investor himself, were a few wealthy Europeans—the same people who contributed the much-needed initial capital to the Soros fund in 1969. “We didn’t have to make these people rich,” said Jimmie Rogers (friend and colleague of Soros). “But we made them downright sickeningly rich.”

Retire or go into the shadows?

In June 1981, Soros appeared before the public on the cover of the Institutional Investor magazine. Next to his smiling face was the phrase: "The world's greatest investment manager." The subtitle read: "George Soros has never suffered a loss, and his successes command respect." We will talk about how he caught on to new trends in the investment business in the 70s and ended up amassing a personal fortune of $100 million.”

The article explained how Soros earned his fortune. With only $15 million in assets in 1974, the Soros fund had grown to $381 million by the end of 1980. “In 12 years managing the money of clients such as Geldring and Pearson in Amsterdam or the Rothschild Bank in Paris, Soros has never ended a financial year with a loss. In 1980, the fund showed an impressive growth rate - 102% per year. Soros turned capital duties into his personal fortune, estimated at about $100 million.”

Ironically, immediately after the publication of the article, 1981 turned out to be the worst year for the foundation. Quantum shares fell 22.9%. For the first (and so far the last) time, the fund ended the year with no profit. The departure of a good third of investors cut the fund's funds by half - to 193.3 million dollars. Soros began to think about closing the fund.

Before he retired, Soros knew he had to get the fund into safe hands. He spent most of 1982 looking for that right person. Finally, he discovered it in the distant state of Minnesota. Jim Marquez was then a 33-year-old child prodigy running a large mutual fund, the IDS Progressive Fund, in Minneapolis.

By the end of 1982, Quantum had grown 56.9%, increasing its asset value from $193.3 million to $302.8 million. Jim Marquez began work on January 1, 1983. Soros managed half of the fund's total assets; he divided the other half among 10 other managers. In late 1983, Soros and Marquez were reaping the benefits of success. The fund's assets increased by 24.9% or $75.4 million, reaching $385,532,688.

Although Soros moved into the shadows, his contribution to the work remained considerable. He still spent a lot of time abroad: a month and a half in late spring in London, a month in China, Japan, and a month in Europe in the autumn. He spent his summers in South Hampton on Long Island (New York).

Sheer nonsense

1985 was a very successful year for Soros. Compared to 1984, Quantum showed a staggering 122.2% growth rate. The value of his assets rose from $448.9 million at the end of 1984 to $1,003 million at the end of 1985. One dollar invested in his fund in 1969 was worth $164 at the end of 1985, after fees and charges. Profit "Quantum" for 1985 amounted to 548 million dollars. Based on Soros's 12% stake in the fund, his share of the fund's profits for 1985 was $66 million, in addition to $17.5 million in fees and a $10 million bonus from clients. In total, George Soros earned $93.5 million this year.

By early January 1986, Soros had shaken up his entire investment portfolio. Playing for the increase in the price of shares of American companies, he actively traded stocks and futures in other countries and brought the total volume of transactions to two billion dollars. 40% of the shares and 2/3 of the foreign shares were associated with the Finnish stock exchange, Japanese railways and Japanese real estate, as well as real estate in Hong Kong.

On September 22, 1985, George Soros bought up millions of Japanese yen. The next day it became known about the fall of the dollar against the yen from 239 to 222.5 yen, or 4.3%. Soros, much to his delight, made $40 million overnight. He later called it "sheer nonsense."

Richer than forty-two states

Of all the financial transactions that Soros conducted, his currency speculation is the most famous. On "Black Wednesday" September 16, 1992, Soros opened a short position for the pound sterling in the amount of more than $10 billion, earning more than $1.1 billion in one day. As a result of Soros's operations, the Bank of England was forced to carry out a massive foreign exchange intervention and, ultimately, to withdraw the pound sterling from the mechanism for regulating the exchange rates of European countries, which led to an instant fall of the pound against major currencies. It was from that moment that Soros began to be mentioned in the press as "the man who brought down the Bank of England."

At the end of June 1993, it became known that George Soros, according to the calculations of the Financial World magazine, earned the most in 1993 on Wall Street. The magazine jokingly tried to make Soros' 1993 salary more tangible. “If Soros were a public company, he would be ranked 37th in terms of profit in the US between Bank One and McDonald's. His salary surpasses the GDP (gross domestic product) of at least forty-two UN member states and is roughly equal to the GDP of countries such as Guadeloupe, Burundi or Chad. In other words, he can buy 5,790 Rolls-Royces for $190,000 each. Or pay for the education of all the students of Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Columbia University combined for three years.

The magazine also noted that in 1993, Soros single-handedly earned as much as the McDonald's corporation with 169,000 employees. All of his investment funds were doing well: Quantum Imaging Growth increased its net worth by 109%, and Quantum and Quota by 72% each.

George Soros' Success Secrets

George Soros's way of doing things stems from a combination of his personal qualities that can be simply unrepeatable.

Firstly, his huge natural mind (like Andrew Carnegie, Aristotle Onassis ...). Soros has the best understanding of cause and effect in the entire global economy. If A happened, then B must happen, and after it C (in this case, various countries of the world are analyzed).

Secondly, he is very determined. He himself may deny his courage when he claims that the meaning of the secrets of survival is the key to successful investments. And knowing these secrets sometimes means lowering the stakes in the game, preventing losses when they are unacceptable, and always having sufficient reserves. I emphasize: an instant reduction in rates (the decision is made in a split second).

Thirdly, the actions of Soros simply require strong nerves. “I was in his office as he made decisions on hundreds of millions of dollars of deals,” said Daniel Doron, a legal expert and director of the Jerusalem Center for Economic Progress. - I would not sleep at night for fear! And he plays with such sums! This requires nerves of steel. Maybe he just tempered them so much…”

Fourth, dispassion. Allan Rafael, who worked with Soros in the 1980s, believes George's rare stoicism among investors has served George well. Such people can be counted on the fingers. When George makes a mistake, he doesn't fumes. But he does not say that he is right, and not others. He immediately admits his mistake and leaves the game, because the continuation of incorrect bets threatens ruin. You need to remember this all the time, even at home or in a dream. It completely consumes you. The eyes pop out. If this business were easier, then even laboratory assistants would be engaged in it. But it requires extraordinary self-discipline, self-confidence and, most importantly, dispassion.”

Fifthly, George Soros has an extraordinary intuition (again, like Andrew Carnegie, Aristotle Onassis...). Insights are inscrutable when it is worth speculating big, and when to quit the game, realizations when you understand the situation correctly and when you are wrong, etc., etc.

“Summing up” the talents of George Soros, an investor, Byron Wien states: “George's genius lies in his extraordinary self-discipline. He looks at the market from a purely practical point of view and knows what forces affect stock prices. George understands that the market contains both rational and emotional aspects. And he knows that he also sometimes makes mistakes.

J. Soros: “As a rule, I just put forward a certain hypothesis and test it in the market. If I am wrong and the market reacts differently, then I am very worried. Sciatica starts, but when I correct the mistake, the pain disappears. I feel at ease. That's how intuition works." Soros' intuition is manifested in the ability to anticipate changes in the stock market in one direction or another. You can't learn this in school, not even at the London School of Economics or Harvard Business School. Very few people have such a gift. Soros is one of them.

Perhaps the most striking feature of Soros's character, which best explains his talents as an investor, was the ability to enter a kind of closed club that includes the entire top of the international financial community. This club does not apply. Most of its members are the political and economic leaders of the richest states: prime ministers, finance ministers, directors of central banks. According to rough estimates, their total number does not exceed two thousand people scattered throughout the world.

Few, very few investors are admitted into this club like Soros. While others read about the leaders in the newspapers, Soros speaks directly to them: breakfast with the finance minister, lunch with the central bank director, or a social visit to the prime minister.

Big financial loss

Since 1997, Soros has had a “black streak”. Almost all investments brought huge losses. And all his failures began with the acquisition of a controlling stake in the Russian company Svyazinvest (in 1998 he himself called this investment “the main mistake of his life”). At that time, Soros and Potanin created the Mustcom offshore, paying $1.875 billion for a 25% stake in Svyazinvest, but at the end of the 1998 crisis, the price of the shares was already several times lower. Soros in 2004 sells shares of the firm for $625 million to Access Industries. And the buyer soon resells them for $1.3 billion to Comstar-OTS, which is part of AFK Sistema. Thus, Soros could earn a huge amount with the right tactics.

As early as the summer of 1999, business circles in Europe and America were talking about Soros losing his financial sense. Then it became known that the Quantum Fund "lost" almost a billion dollars in just a few months. About $700,000,000 went down the drain in an attempt to short the shares of Internet companies. In early 1999, Soros sold off these shares, predicting that "the bubble is about to burst." Since April 1999, the value of these shares on the stock market, on the contrary, has grown at a frantic pace. Another $ 300,000,000 Soros slipped, betting on the growth of the newborn euro.

Other Soros funds lost another $500,000,000 on the same miscalculations in the first half of 1999. Thus, in just six months, Soros shamefully blew one and a half billion. He had never lost that kind of money before. Over the previous 30 years of Quantum's existence, its revenues grew by an average of 30% annually. Shareholders rushed to withdraw capital from Soros funds. Investors were not stopped by the fact that not everywhere in the financial empire of Soros, things turned out to be so bad. For example, the European Quota, which manages $2,000,000 worth of assets, managed to increase their value by 20%. Soros withstood this blow. He managed not only to stop the outflow of capital from his funds, but also to attract new investments. But at the end of 1999, he made a mistake again. He invested heavily in Internet stocks, this time without calling them a bubble. At first, it even seemed that Quantum had taken revenge: in early 2000, the value of assets under its management rose to $10,500,000,000.

But the market played a cruel joke with Soros for the second time. If a year ago, according to one of the top managers of Quantum, the management of the fund “felt too early that the Internet bubble was about to burst”, now they simply missed the collapse of the NASDAQ index. In just two weeks in April, Quantum lost $3,000,000,000. Stanley Druckenmiller, who has managed the fund since 1989, said, “I'm smashed. I should have withdrawn assets from the market in February, but for me this business was like a drug, ”and at the end of April he resigned.

In total, in the first quarter of 2000, Soros lost, according to some estimates, $ 5 billion, that is, more than three times more than in the "tragic" 1999. He lost, including the continuation of the depreciation of the euro. The financier stepped on the same rake twice, continuing to hope for the potential of the new currency. Now the aged billionaire has decided he's had enough. So you can lose your legal pension. "The time for big deals is over for us," Soros announced as he closed the largest of his funds. He still has something, though.

George Soros is known not only as a financier, but also as a philanthropist. American law allows its citizens to spend no more than fifty percent of their income on charitable purposes. George Soros was and remains the only US citizen who completely and regularly exhausts this limit. That's about 300 million a year.

“Wealth has given me the opportunity to do what I think is important, to realize my dreams of a better world order ... Sooner or later, the peoples and their elected governments must take responsibility for creating an Open Society - not only in Russia, but throughout the world. When that time comes, my motives will become clear, and no one will ask why I helped.”GeorgeSoros

In 1979, George Soros created his first charitable foundation, the Open Society Fund, in the United States. Soros currently spends an average of $300 million annually on his non-profit projects. .

Now he has established charitable foundations in more than 30 countries. In 1988, in the USSR, Soros organized the "Cultural Initiative" fund in support of science, culture and education, but the fund was later closed, as the money was used for personal purposes by certain individuals. In 1995, it was decided to organize a new Open Society Foundation in Russia.

For the second time, Soros was surprised to find that dollars allocated for scientific programs are deposited in suspicious banks, and easily grasping the meaning of the concept of “turning money”, Soros came to the conclusion that the ratio of corruption and efficiency in this case leaves much to be desired. After that, the composition of the Moscow board immediately changed.

From 1996 to 2001, the Soros Foundation invested about $100 million in the University Internet Centers project, as a result of which 33 Internet centers appeared in Russia. .

In late 2003, Soros officially withdrew his financial support for his philanthropic work in Russia. Already in 2004, the Open Society Institute stopped issuing grants. But the structures created with the assistance of the Soros Foundation are still actively working without his direct participation.

Such projects include the Moscow Higher School of Social and Economic Sciences, the PRO ARTE Institute Foundation for Culture and Art, the D.S. Likhachev International Charitable Foundation, the Pushkin Library, a non-profit foundation for supporting book publishing, education and new information technologies.

With such a scope, of course, the question of intentions arises. Some argue that making donations is more pleasant than paying taxes. Others think that Soros is doing charity work out of love for democracy, which he calls an open society. Still others suspect that Soros is tormented by complexes and guilt for his speculative stocks. Some claim that Soros has delusions of grandeur and a thirst for world domination, he is preparing to capture future markets. Others believe that Soros is buying public opinion in this way, accusing him of the collapse of national currencies. Others stubbornly argue that Soros is a spy, and his philanthropy is a cover for intelligence gathering or political subversion. And all this seems to be true.

Croatian President Tudjman accused Soros of supporting traitors and called the concept of an open society a dangerous new ideology. Romanian President Iliescu argued that Soros was maliciously supporting the opposition, although the fund only helped independent newspapers there.

In addition to charity, George Soros provides financial support for initiatives to legalize marijuana and allow same-sex barques. In his article "Why I support marijuana," published in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, calls on the US government to legalize marijuana.

“Our marijuana laws do more harm than good,” Soros writes. "Marijuana has been and remains the most popular illegal drug in the United States and elsewhere, and bans on its distribution only lead to higher prices and more negative attitudes towards these laws."

Soros is accused of stealing and exporting scientific developments, on which the Soviet authorities spent billions, under the guise of charitable activities in science, and contributed to the brain drain from Russia. He did not hide and does not hide that all his "charitable" activities were aimed at the destruction of the Soviet statehood.

It is difficult to "underestimate" his contribution to the culture of Russia. Taking into his own time, in his hands, the remnants of the system of completing libraries, and especially those of schools and universities, that had been preserved after the collapse of the USSR, Soros rewrote many textbooks. The quality of many humanities textbooks was so appallingly low, and the textbooks were so crudely ideological, that it was just right to speak of a crime against the nation.

The main program of action of the Soros brigade in Russia is aimed at the minds of our citizens. And above all on the minds of the intelligentsia and youth. They swallow the hook - everything else will follow. When you watch the course of this program in the last ten years, you want to call it magnificent, if only it is permissible to apply this word to something vile and cynical. Is it possible to say - "a magnificent operation to poison the wells"? The bottom line is that there is pathos in Soros's work, cynical creative play, satanic beauty. This is a burglar and a molester with artistry.

Soros is opposed to a strong centralized government in Russia. This is his first principle. After such words, is it possible to doubt that the organizations working in Russia on the money of Soros are engaged in subversive activities, that is, they contribute to everything that weakens and decentralizes the state? Yes, it's just stupid to doubt it - bankers won't take a penny out of their wallet in vain. How much Soros hates the very idea of ​​a strong state with Orthodox culture became clear when he financed the trial in The Hague of Slobodan Milosevic.

First of all, Soros is not a banker who cares about profit. He leads the special forces of the shadow world government, waging financial wars, the goals of which we can only guess.

The leading aristocratic and royal families of Europe, concentrated in the British House of Windsor, created the "Club of the Islands". This happened at the time of the collapse of the British Empire after the Second World War. Instead of using the powers of the state to achieve its geopolitical goals, this network was developed, based on private financial interests tied to the old aristocratic oligarchy of Western Europe. The center of this "Club of the Islands" is the financial center - London. Soros is one of those who in the Middle Ages was called - Hofjuden, "Court of the Jews", which was deployed by aristocratic families. The most important of these "Jews who are not Jews" are the Rothschilds, who launched Soros' career.

Books by George Soros

Soros wrote many books during his life, including "The Alchemy of Finance" and "Supporting Democracy" ...

Now George Soros lives in the penthouse of one of the skyscrapers in the center of New York. He arrived in Manhattan some 50 years ago with big ambitions and only a couple of dollars in his pocket. Today, he is richer and more powerful than many of the nations whose flags fly at UN Headquarters near his current home. However, despite this, the walking embodiment of the American dream, the first person in the world who managed to earn 20 billion in one year and became famous for the collapse of the Bank of England, remains a mystery to the whole world in many ways. His philosophical revelations and thoughts about finance and economics in numerous books and publications in fact once again convince George Soros of the ambiguity of the figure. Journalists and biographers have not come to a consensus on what is the secret of his success, and what motives underlie his actions.

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A look that is scary to meet, full of despair and pain.

The look of a man going to his death, who has not a drop of hope for salvation. The look of a man following in a column of doomed Jews on the road from life to non-existence... The Holocaust claimed the lives of millions of people, and the list of victims could be replenished with one more name - the name of Gyord Schwartz.

Now this person is not called anything other than George Soros, but from childhood he learned the main lesson, thanks to which he did not share the fate of those who suffered from Nazi repression:

“I did not accept the rules proposed by others. If I did that, I wouldn't be alive."

Our today's hero was born in Budapest, in 1930. And if he owes his birth to both parents, then he must thank his father for his second birth. He forged documents and took the family to the UK when the threat from the Nazis, solving the "Jewish question", hung over them.

“I was lucky that my father was one of those who did not act, as people usually do,” convinced Soros, who escaped an unknown death during the genocide.

Well, the ability to make risky decisions helped George Soros to reach certain heights, he has all the signs of a successful person. Judge for yourself - our hero takes 7 position in the list of American billionaires, his fortune is estimated by Forbes magazine at $ 20 billion as of March 2012.

Mr. Soros is a powerful investor, financial guru, founder of philanthropic foundations in 25 countries, and father of five children.

George Soros is also the man "who busted the Bank of England", a marijuana legalizer, a master market speculator, and a sponsor of various opposition groups around the world.

You have already understood, before us is a very multifaceted personality. George Soros can be admired or hated, praised or scolded. I prefer another option - to study. To learn both from the good and strong qualities of his personality, and from his mistakes, because it is better to learn from the mistakes of others than your own, right?

Soros himself by no means claims to be an ideal person, and appreciates the ability to admit that he is wrong:

In 2012, Soros will turn 82 years old, and now we will talk about what he did to deserve all the flattering and not so good reviews about himself.

After emigrating to the UK in 1947, Soros entered the London School of Economics and Political Science. The educational institution was famous for its influential graduates, including John F. Kennedy himself. The motto of the school - “know the reason for things” - was also obeyed by George Soros, and now his philosophy of life “is not based on money, but on my idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe complex relationship between reality and ideas about it.”

During his studies, Soros met Karl Popper, an outstanding philosopher and sociologist. The Austrian lecturer became a mentor to George Soros, infecting him with his "open society" concept. According to Mr. Popper, members of an open society make decisions based on critical thinking and their own intelligence, while in a closed society relations between people are regulated by a system of taboos.

Well, thinking with your own head, not agreeing to play the role of a cog in society, is the lot of successful people. Mr. Soros is convinced that if you channel intelligence into business, which is “not at all that complicated,” then “smart people can get real wealth when they really dedicate themselves to it».

After successfully completing his education, Soros gets a job as an assistant manager at a haberdashery factory. At one time he worked as a traveling salesman, driving around the seaside resorts of England in an old Ford. If Soros had a work book, one could read such records as “a waiter in a restaurant”, “a porter at a railway station”, “an apple picker”.

Did such positions suit an ambitious young man?

Not at all. It's just that in the 50s of the last century, Soros was faced with what a modern person has to face when applying for a job - with discrimination. George persistently offers his candidacy in the banking sector, but everywhere he hears a refusal due to nationality and lack of patrons.

But that doesn't stop Soros. If a person puts himself in front of him and stubbornly goes to it, sooner or later, he reaches it. In 1953, George gets a job in the London company Singer & Friedlander. Soros works in the arbitration department, but when work has become a boring routine, Soros is looking for new options.

In 1956, at the invitation of his friend's father (oh, acquaintances, nevertheless, do not interfere) he moved to America. In a brokerage firm on Wall Street, Soros comprehends all the intricacies of buying and selling. Buying in one country and selling them in another, or, using the terminology, "external arbitrage", brought our hero a good income. Enterprising George even comes up with his own method of trading - he sells the combined securities separately before they can be officially separated from each other. Soros called this way of earning "internal arbitrage".

On this occasion, the comedy "Men in Black" is recalled, when the main character of Will Smith creaks to move the table towards him, so that it would be more convenient to fill out the questionnaire. Yes, people who change the rules of the game are able not only to move the tables, but also to move the economy of countries, as our hero will soon convince you of.

In 1963, when domestic arbitration stopped making money due to government-imposed fees, Soros returned to work on the dissertation he had begun earlier. In 1966, without completing the scientific work on the topic “The Heavy Burden of Consciousness”, our philosopher returns to. It is in this field that Mr. Soros proves that consciousness is a quite feasible burden that brings good income.

In 1970, Soros, together with Jim Rogers, founded the famous Quantum hedge fund, which became one of the main sources of his income. With respect to readers who are not familiar with the term "", I will give a little background. Hedge funds are private investment funds that are not available to the general public and are managed by a professional investment manager.

George Soros was not the only "culprit" of the pound sterling, but it was he who received the title of "the man who broke the Bank of England." Since then, this environment has become monochrome - it went down in history as "black", and Soros himself calls it "white".

George Soros- a brilliant financier, philosopher, politician, philanthropist and at the same time a speculator with radical views, adventurous inclinations and innovative thinking. No one can predict in advance his next step in work and life. He does not walk the beaten path, but he himself paves new paths, as well as new doctrines.

His activities on a global scale are evaluated ambiguously.

There was even a term soros”, implying speculators who artificially create currency crises for the sake of profit. On the other hand, Soros created a network of charitable organizations around the world under the general name "". He is a member of the executive committee of the non-profit international organization International Crisis Group, the essence of which is to prevent political conflicts.

Education

Career:

• Brokerage Firm F. M. Mayer, Arbitrage Trader - 1956–1959
• Investment company Wertheim & Company, analyst - 1959-1963
• Arnhold Investment Company and S. Blaikroeder, Vice President - 1963-1973
• Quantum Group Foundation, Sole Proprietor - 1973-2000
• Soros Foundation, Chairman - 1996

Prizes:

• Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights, New York - 1990
• University of Bologna - 1995

Address:

• Soros Foundation Office, 888 Seventh Avenue, 33rd Floor, Suite 3300, New York, NY 10016-0001; https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/ .

Biography of George Soros

George Soros (George Soros), formerly Gyorgy Shorosh, and even earlier - Gyord, that is, Georg Schwartz, was born on August 12, 1930 in Budapest, into a Jewish family. His father, Tivadar Shorosh, a lawyer, went to the front as a volunteer in the First World War. Having been in Russian captivity and learning what Siberia is, in 1920 he fled home.

"To survive, you have to circumvent the law."

Elizabeth's mother advised her son to get an education, and his father taught survival methods. During the Nazi occupation, the family survived only thanks to forged documents that the father made. It was an important life lesson - to act according to one's own reasons, and not according to established laws.

In 1947, George moved to London, where he met the anti-communist philosopher Karl Popper and his treatise " open society". It is this theory of market dependencefrom psychology will permeate Soros' activities throughout his life. Future core fund " Quantum” will get its name, also based on the treatise.

“Alchemy does not work with chemical elements. But it works in the financial markets, because spells can influence the decisions of people who shape the course of events.”

Career in New York

In 1956, Soros moved to America, where he got a job in a small investment firm. F.M. Mayer. He invented and implemented new methods of work.

Since 1963, Soros has excelled as a financial analyst for a leading investment campaign. Arnhold & S. Bleichroeder who has worked with overseas clients. After some time, he reached the post of vice president. But then Kennedy's executive order came out on additional taxes on foreign investment, and work began to decline.

Soros came up with a new way of trading - internal arbitrage. He sold securities from a block of shares, bonds, powers of attorney separately before they were officially divided. However, this seemed to him not enough.

"I don't play within a given set of rules, I seek to change the rules of the game."

He quit investing and resumed writing his old dissertation - " Heavy burden of consciousness". After 3 years, he realized that he could still achieve much more in the field of investment. In 1966 he returned to business, and in 1967 the same company Arnhold & S. Bleichroeder entrusted him with the creation and management of several offshore funds.

The first two funds furst needle" And " Double ing in 1967 cost the company $250,000. But he managed to attract wealthy clients from Europe, South America and the Arab countries. Main officewas located in New York, and the funds were registered in the Antilles - offshore allowed to evade taxes. Under the leadership of Soros, incomes grew, although other investors suffered losses.

Creation of the first fund

“Nothing will make you concentrate like a possible danger. In order to reach the maximum level of clear thought, I need inspiration, and it is desirable that it be associated with risk.

In 1969, having made his own capital in 3 years of successful work, George Soros decided to create his own hedge fund. Such an enterprise is characterized by the fact that it uses aggressive tactics, is free from regulations, and can choose its own strategies and instruments for investment. This path leads either to super profits or to large losses.

George Soros becomes co-owner and leader Double Eagle Fund”, (Double ing), investing $ 4 million from personal capital. Later, the fund will turn into the famous "Quantum Group", which will bring Soros the main wealth and fame.

Over the years" Quantum has experienced its ups and downs, but contributors have earned a total of $32 million that is still unattainable today.

"I never play within one set of rules, but always try to change the rules of the game, adjusting them for myself"

Soros added his knowledge and experience to the ideas of Karl Popper and gave his own theory the name "reflexivity". Theorists of the time believed that professional investors assess the futuremarket movement based on traditional analytics. Soros turned everything upside down. He is sure that the psychology of the investor occupies the leading place in forecasting.

In 1973, George Soros, together with a former colleague and wealthy investor Jim Rogers, founded his own company. The junior partner, Roger, did fundamental analysis, and the senior, Soros, made deals. They were attracted by moments of risk, when the course maintained a delicate balance, but could swing in any direction at any moment.

Here is an example of Soros's methods: during the conflict between Israel and Egypt, Soviet weapons turned out to be more powerful than the Pentagon expected. Soros realized that the United States would now begin to actively build up the defense industry, and invested in military enterprises. As a result, by 1974, the fund's shares increased from 6.1 million to 18 million. In 1976, their value increased by 61.9%, and then - by 31.2%.

1980 showed that in the 10 years after the renaming of the Double Eagle fund to Quantum, the value of assets increased to 10.6%, which amounted to $ 381 million. Personal capital totaled $ 100 million. Soros made rich not only himself. His first investors, already rich people, thanks to the talent of Soros, became simply incredible rich.

Business or philanthropy?

By the end of 1980, his fund, renamed Quantum, had increased its initial capital by 100 times. And it was equal to 381 million dollars. But Soros fired Jim Rogers, and soon the figures began to creep down. A year later, he lost 23%, then the company's equity was halved. From the balance of $ 200 million, he returned the money to depositors, and he himself decided to take a break. He divorced his first wife Annelis, relations with children were not getting better. George Soros began visiting a psychoanalyst, looking for remedies for depression and decided to focus on philanthropy.

Unexpectedly, in the summer of 1981, the magazine "Institutional Investor" prints his portrait with the inscription: " World's Greatest Investment Manager". A laudatory article listed his successes and lifted him up. Among his clients were such magnates as Geldring, Pearson, Rothschild.

However, regular customers were spooked by previous losses. They took away their assets, believing that Soros was exhausted. Securities "Quantum" fell by 22.9%. For the first time in his life, he decided to fly to Europe to stop the flow of refugees, but it was all in vain. For the first time in 12 years of existence, the financial year ended with a minus.

By the end of 1982, a frustrated Soros still raised the value of assets by 56.9%, but decided to retire and began to look for a suitable successor. It was Jim Marquez, a 33-year-old child prodigy from Minnesota who manages the IDS Progressive Fund.

On January 1, 1983, Marquez began his career with Soros. The funds were divided into two parts. One was run by George Soros himself, and the other by 10 managers. The annual result was a real breakthrough. Assets grew by 24.9%, which corresponds to 75.4 million dollars, which amounted to no more, no less, 385,532,688 dollars.

• It was officially believed that Soros retired from work, but this is not entirely true. Most of the time he traveled around Europe and Japan, visiting each country for a month. And only in the summer he remained in New York on the island of Long Island.

Return to business

“My personality is that I don't have any particular investment style. Every time there is something new – new approaches, new methods, new ways of achieving the set goals.”

In 1985, the fund's shares soared again. It took just one year to increase asset growth by 122.2% from $448.9 million to $1,003 million. Quantum's profit was $548 million. Soros' share was 12%, that is, 66 million dollars. If you include in this amount 17.5 million taxes and10 million in client bonuses, then the annual earnings will be 93.5 million dollars. It is easy to calculate that from the year the fund was opened in 1969, each dollar invested then became worth $164. Inspired George Soros again embarked on the path of active action.

On September 22, 1985, US Treasury Secretary James Baker met with his counterparts from Great Britain, France, Germany, and Japan to jointly depreciate the dollar. Soros bought millions of yen the day before the dollar crashed and made $30 million overnight from the fall (from 239 to 222.5) as the yen rose 4.3% against the dollar and then 7%.

And although Soros did not know about the upcoming changes, many began to call him a living legend in the foreign exchange market. George Soros himself said that he, like everyone else, makes mistakes, but one major success overshadows everything. In total, in 1985, he earned $ 230 million. Whether it was a well-thought-out calculation, or a simple accident, Soros reacted to such a jump with the definition - “ sheer nonsense».

“Success requires leisure. You need time that belongs solely to you.”

Now the tycoon could afford to quietly manage his empire from the height of a penthouse in Manhattan, communicating with the world's largest bankers in 5 languages. Edition The Economist called him " the most intriguing investor in the world". A magazine Fortune described him as " the most successful investor of his time, endowed with the gift of foresight».

How Soros scammed the Bank of England

“It doesn't really matter if you're right or wrong. What matters is how much money you make when you're right and how much money you lose when you're wrong."

On October 5, 1990, 60-year-old Soros met with a 30-year-old fund manager on Wall Street. Despite the difference in age, they understood each other perfectly and became close friends. Two years later, Stanley Druckenmiller headed the fund " Quantum Fund» George Soros.

September 16, 1992, Wednesday, Soros played a big game. In recent years, he has gradually bought up the currency and government bonds of Britain. But then it happened that the pound began to fall and steadily declined during the week. Druckenmiller suggested to Soros " help» the British currency to fall even lower.

He added personal capital of about 5 billion pounds to the assets and put on a short position at once more than 10 billion. The rate immediately dropped to a minimum. Once again buying stocks and currencies at the lowest price, George Soros made £1 billion in one day.

Thus, he forced the Bank of England to carry out a massive injection of foreign exchange from government reserves and withdraw from the sphere of influence on European currencies. Soros has since earned the status of "The Man Who Toppled the Bank of England".

The following year, 1993, George Soros became the most successful trader in the investment market. World Finance magazine calculated that his earnings for 1993 were equal to the GDP of 42 countries. With this amount, it was possible to purchase 5,790 Rolls-Royce cars or pay for studies at the higher educational institutions of Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia University in 3 years. He alone earned as much as the largest corporation "".

Attack on South Asia

In 1997, Soros carried out an attack similar to that of England to depreciate the currencies of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore. It caused a deep economic crisis in these countries and the return of the economy 15 years ago. The next attempt was an attack on China, but it was thwarted by Chinese experts. The leaders of many countries began to worry. If Soros willtrade their currency, an economic crisis may begin. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad effectively blamed Soros for destabilizing his country's economy during the Asian financial panic of 1997–1998. The tycoons of capitalism gained status as a person who could change the direction of the financial world market.

Massive failures

“By and large, I’m not afraid to lose everything. After all, I still have a head on my shoulders, and in this head there are still brains ... ".

In 1997, Soros, according to him, committed biggest mistake in my life, which was the first in a further series of failures. Together with the Russian oligarch Vladimir Potanin, he created the offshore Mustcom and acquired a 25% stake in the Russian company Svyazinvest. 1998 fell on the crisis, prices fell almost three times. The purchase of Svyazinvest cost Soros $1.875 billion. And its sale in 2004 to Access Industries, headed by Leonard Blavatnik, was 625 million.

Second mistake was predicted in 1999 the decline in the assets of Internet enterprises. They, on the contrary, went uphill, and 700,000,000 dollars were lost for nothing. The next puncture was a bet on the growth of the euro. 300,000,000 were also lost. The Quantum Fund has lost almost one billion dollars.

Other funds by mid-1999 also showed a disgraceful result of minus $500 million. The total loss was one and a half billion dollars. Clients in a panic pulled out their money. It was an unprecedented failure in his entire career. But Soros wouldn't be Soros if he hadn't stopped the pullback. Moreover, he found a way to attract new investors by investing in Internet companies again, but this time to increase the price. The turnover of the Quantum Fund by 2000 had grown to $10,500,000,000.

• In 2000, at the age of seventy, George Soros decided to retire, although he retained leadership of the Soros Foundation Office. He put $2.8 billion into the fund, but he still had about $5 billion left. Soros promised to add the rest of the money before he turned 80.

Unexpectedly, the course, the Internet collapsed, and in April " Quantum” emptied by 3 billion. The total loss in the first quarter was $5 billion. This is 2.5 times higher than the losses in 1999. In 2004, Soros liquidates the fund. Since 2011, he decides from now on to earn only for himself and his family.

His two sons, Jonathan and Robert, commented that the liquidation is due to the emergence of new laws that significantly restrict the activities of hedge funds. The latest regulations make it necessary to make the business transparent, to disclose data about investors, which is basically impossible to do.

By 2010, Soros was considered the largest philanthropist, according to The Cronicle Of Philanthropy. Total Fund " Open Society Fund» received $332 million from Soros's personal capital to support democracy inCentral Europe, Eastern Europe and the territories of the former Soviet Union. By 2011, his fortune was estimated at 14.5 billion. According to Forbes, Soros was the 46th richest person in the world.

Retired George Soros

But by the time Soros retired, of course, he was not left empty-handed. He now lives in New York and has five children. Three - from the first wife of Anna-Lisa Witchak, with whom he lived for 23 years. His second marriage was in 1983 to Susan Weber, an art critic from New York who is 25 years his junior. Together they lived for 22 years. From this marriage two children were born.

Then, for more than five years, his girlfriend of life was a 28-year-old Brazilian TV star, Adriana Ferreira. In 2001, after parting, she demanded through the courts compensation of 50 million dollars. Soros called the lawsuit "completely unfounded." His lawyer expressed his opinion: "It is clear that this is nothing more than an attempt to blackmail money from a wealthy person."

And there is nothing surprising in the fact that in 2013, at the age of 83, he married for the third time. Brazilian Tamiko Bolton, 42 years old, previously sold dietary supplements online and later became the owner of an online yoga company.

At the moment, the family piggy bank holds 29 billion dollars in its assets.

The Secret of Soros' Wealth

"God gave me an extremely short memory, which allows me to deal not with the past, but with the future."

• Despite the fact that George Soros owns a large group of companies " Quantum Group of Funds", all major operations are carried out through a secret, the largest offshore fund" Quantum Fund NV”, which was listed on the Caribbean island of Curacao.
• He made his fortune playing in a bear market, that is, betting on a fall. Here he used his theory " Market Reflection". It says that the price forecast in the future is based not only on economic and political changes, but also on psychological factors. For example, in order to reduce the value of the currency of any country, you need to use the world's media, while simultaneously putting pressure on analysts and traders. This is how crises are caused that destroy the lives of many thousands of people.
• The decisive nature of the financier also played a role - the harsh childhood and the example of his father affected. Soros himself emphasizes that the ability to survive is the key to investment success. This means that the trader intuitively feels when to lower rates and when to raise. Sometimes it's a fraction of a second, a moment. Extremely developed intuition, multiplied by the inquisitiveness of the mind, gives an excellent result.
• Soros has excellent control over his actions. Having made a wrong move, he does not continue the game, but stops or withdraws assets altogether. After all, further play in the wrong direction incurs losses. This business requires extraordinary self-discipline. As a result, Soros was able to enter the international unofficial club, which includes 2,000 major personalities - the elite of international politics and economics.
• Many believe that Soros' virtues are only part of the truth. It is assumed that having secured friendship with the powerful of this world, he used classified official information for personal gain. In 2002, he was even fined 2.2 million euros for obtaining classified information for profit.

Political ambitions

George Soros was not a businessman in the usual sense of the word. The fact is that a lot of money made it possible to lobby for the necessary laws, to sponsor color revolutions. It was not without his participation that power changed in Eastern European countries, as well as in Georgia and Ukraine. No wonder Petro Poroshenko in November 2015 awarded him the Order of Freedom. Soros himself admitted tofollowing the theory of reflexivity of stock markets. Its essence is that the market does not move by itself. It is formed by people who influence political and economic circumstances. So, for example, in order to bring down the currency of a country, it is necessary through the media, analysts, currency traders to shake the currency or stock market in advance.

Charity

The only US citizen, he gives to charity 50% of his income, which is 300 million a year. The first charitable foundation called " open society» ( Open Society Fund) Soros discovered in 1979. Immediately he began to allocate money for the study of black students in South Africa.

In 1992 Soros founded the Central European University with the main building in Budapest. The Open Society Foundations operate in more than 100 countries. Their annual expenditure in 2011 reached $835 million.

In 1984 he created in Hungary the first Open Society Institute with a budget of $3 million. In 1990, the Central European University was opened with branches in Prague and Warsaw. Similar funds were created in the USA, Latin America, Asia and Africa. Their goal is to promote the ideas of the "Open Society", bring democracy and freedom, fight against dictators and tyranny. He has spent more than $8 billion on sponsorship since 1984. in 70 countries.

In reality, the Soros Foundations are aimed at corrupting the youth and undermining the state from within. He supports same-sex marriage, the legalization of marijuana.

Romania, Croatia, Belarus banned its activities in their countries. Many states believe that Soros supports traitors and is a sponsor of various opposition societies. Soros is a representative of the shadow world government, which benefits from subordinating the economy of other countries. Therefore, his philanthropy is so ambiguous.

George Soros in Russia

Of the $5 billion donated to charity, $1 billion went to Russia. In 1987, for the first time, a Soviet-American foundation was opened under the name "Cultural Initiative". But he did not last long, as the funds were simply embezzled. In the same year, together with Potanin, an offshore was formed, which, due to the crisis, lasted only one year.

In 1988, the Cultural Initiative charitable foundation was founded to promote science and culture. Soon it was closed, as the money again went into the pocket of interested parties. In 1995, Soros returned to the Russian market with a fund« open society”, but the story with non-targeted money repeated itself. Then the joint program "University Internet Centers" was opened. The Russian government has invested 30 million dollars in it, and Soros - 100 million dollars.

For 5 years, from 1996 to 2001, 33 Internet centers were created for $100 million. A free magazine was published for young people coolant, which had a social and scientific direction. But, as you know, only cheese in a mousetrap is free. The ideology of history and cultural studies textbooks was aimed at strengthening the opposition. In 2003, Soros curtailed the activities of Russian foundations, and in 2004 he closed the grants. But the funds created with his help and the societies are still working. This:

• Petersburg Institute of Culture "PRO ARTE"
• Moscow Higher School of Social and Economic Sciences
• Fund for Book Publishing, Education and Information Technology Support
• Pushkin Library

In those days, the Funds came in handy. The country was at a crossroads, the economy was in complete collapse, and there is nothing to say about the humanitarian sectors. They set up the production of textbooks without the Soviet ideology, replenished the libraries with books. But there was one trick. All programs contained oppositional ideas. The ideological sabotage was designed for the youth and intelligentsia.

In November 2015, at the suggestion of the State Duma deputies, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation recognized the Open Society Foundation in Russia as undesirable, as it posed a threat to the constitutional order of Russia. 53 humanitarian textbooks were burned at the Vorkuta Mining College. 14 books written off for destruction at the Polytechnic College. Ukhta University was preparing to seize 413 books.

What is the danger of Soros funds

Readers of the online publication Human Events - powerful voices conservative rated billionaire George Soros as "the single most destructive left-wing demagogue in the country" and named 10 arguments:

1. Issuing billions to societies with leftist views

Using Open Society as a pipeline, George Soros has donated over $7 billion to left-wing groups. Here are some of them: ACORN, Apollo Union, La Resa National Council, Tides Foundation, Huffington Post, Southern Poverty Law Center, Soujourners, People for the American Way, Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Women.

1. Influence on American elections

George Soros set a goal in 2004 to remove President George W. Bush, allocating $23.58 million to 527 anti-Bush groups. Soros helped Barack Obama launch a political career.

1. Desire to reduce American sovereignty.

Soros would prefer America to become subject to international organizations. This would strengthen the power of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. In his opinion, it is necessary to reduce American influence in the IMF.

1. Media dictatorship.

Soros is the financial patron of the American media, where he pursues the line of his interests. But there is a progressive media group in the world that resists conservative pressure. Its founder, David Brock, openly declared war on Fox News, initiated "guerilla warfare and sabotage" against the cable news channel. He tried to destroy the business of the owner Rupert Murdoch, since by law the educational foundation has no right to engage in partisan political activities.

1. MoveOn.org Society.

George Soros was a major investor in the MoveOn.org advocacy and political action campaign for millions of liberal candidates. On its website, the society compared George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler.

1. Center for American Progress.

The Center for American Progress provided the Obama administration with topics for negotiations and policy positions. Soros also funded the Obama-led White House and staffed its administration.

1. environmental extremism.

George Soros funded Van Jones with his leftist environmental ideas to support societies: the Ella Baker Center, Green For All, the Center for American Progress, and the Apollo Alliance, which contributed $110 billion in environmental support. This was part of Obama's economic stimulus package. Soros also funded Climate Policy Initiative funds due to global warming, gave money to the Friends of the Earth society.

1. American Association.

Soros gave almost 20 million to societies with one goal - to defeat President Bush. Such support strengthened the campaign brigades at the place of residence, it got to the point that even criminals were involved. Voter registration was riddled with fraud. They handed out leaflets and called voters by phone, misleading them.

1. currency manipulation.

Soros made a significant part of his multi-billion dollar fortune from currency transactions. During the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad accused him of undermining the national currency. In Thailand, he was called an "economic war criminal". Soros initiated the British financial crisis. He dumped 10 billion sterling, which caused the devaluation of the currency, and he himself received 1 billion in profit.

Books by George Soros:

• Alchemy of Finance - 1987
• Discovering Soviet Power - 1990
• Supporting Democracy - 1991
• Democracy Guarantee -1991
• Reading the Mind of the Market - 1994
• Soros on Soros - 1995
• The Crisis of Global Capitalism: The Endangered Open Society - 1998
• Open Society: Reshaping Global Capitalism - 2000
• George Soros on Globalization - 2002
• The Bubble of American Supremacy: Correcting the Misuse of American Power - 2004
• George Soros on Globalization -2002
• Bubble of American Supremacy -2005
• A New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The 2008 Credit Crisis and Its 2009 Significance
• Financial crisis in Europe and the United States -2012
• Tragedy of the European Union - 2014

Conclusion

“I never tried to stand out. Even when I already had more than one million, I tried to live very modestly, much easier than my finances allowed me.

George Soros, despite the ambiguity of thinking, is considered the great financier of our time. He survived more than one crisis, turned millions of deals, lost millions, but, in the end, turned out to be a winner. Not everyone agrees with his principles. But non-standard thinking and courage in making unexpected decisions make us respect this extraordinary person.

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