George Soros moved to England from Hungary in 1947 and completed his studies at the London School of Economics in 1952. In 1956 he immigrated to the U.S. and subsequently occupied various positions in investment firms.
In 1973, Soros founded his own hedge fund, known as Soros Fund Management. This hedge fund developed into the Quantum Fund. His hedge fund earned legendary profits, beating the market by 100% on two occasions.
An aggressive short position on the pound sterling on the 16 of September, 1992 (Black Wednesday), threw Soros into the spotlight. In a single day he collected 1 billion dollars in profit. Soros repeated this tactic with currencies like the German mark and the Thai baht.
Soros is known for his aggressive and short-term investment style, in stark contrast to long-term investors like Buffett and Fisher.
Like Dreman, Soros shares the view that the stock market is ruled by emotional chaos which rational investors can exploit to their advantage.
Unlike classic contrarians, Soros is also happy to run with the investor herd for long periods of time. Soros himself admits to possessing an instinct for making the right investment decisions, though there is not rational explanation for this instinct.
While Soros’ bets on financial markets have long been a source of economic fear and insecurity for people the world over, he busies himself as a politically-motivated philanthropist through his own Open Society Institute.
His decisions have been largely influenced by the teachings of philosopher Karl Popper, under whom he studied.
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