George Soros biography family. Biography of George Soros - a billion-dollar story

George Soros, whose real name is Djord Schwartz, was born into a family with Jewish roots; his parents were quite wealthy people. Djord was the second child - the Schwartzes were already growing up a boy named Paul. Father - Tivard Schwartz - was a fairly famous person in narrow circles - a lawyer, a figure in the Jewish community and an Esperantist writer, he was on in good standing many have. Tivard visited the front lines of World War II, and also served three years in exile in Siberia, after which he still managed to return to his homeland, Budapest. Mother - Elizabeth Schwartz - devoted all her time to her sons, instilling in them a love of beauty. George especially liked painting, and he was also delighted with foreign languages, which he studied with great pleasure. When the boy was six years old, the whole family changed their last name - since 1936, the Schwartzes were listed as Soros.

Education and first experience

At the age of 17, George emigrated to England with his parents and brother, where he almost immediately entered the London School of Economics. During his three years of study, Soros listened to a huge number of lectures, but he was especially impressed by the readings of Karl Popper, an Austrian philosopher. He largely influenced the formation of the future billionaire, and it was he who became the ideological inspirer of Soros to create the so-called open society in the future.

After receiving his diploma, George began looking for work in his specialty. At the same time, he worked part-time at a haberdashery factory, and later as a traveling salesman, driving an old pickup truck and selling various goods to local merchants. Banking did not work out - lack of experience and Jewish roots significantly slowed down the employment process. Luck smiled in 1953 - his compatriot, a Hungarian, helped him get a job at Singer and Friedlander. However, the work turned out to be quite boring and not very profitable, and therefore after just three years Soros resigned from his position.

That same year, the young man moved to America, where his father’s friend helped him settle down and find a suitable job. The latter gave Soros a place in his own brokerage firm, where he was entrusted with international arbitration. A few years later, George managed to open his own business, but the additional tax on foreign investment introduced in 1963 forced him to close his business. Not big business. However, George continued to develop in this direction, and already in 1967 he was listed as the head of the research department at Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder, a company specializing in brokerage services. Some time later, the same company established the Double Eagle fund, which George was asked to head. After holding the position for about four years, in ’73 he, along with Jim Rogers, left the company and founded their own fund, Quantum. Interestingly, to create their brainchild, the partners took funds from Double Eagle investors.

Own business

At Quantum, there was a clear distribution of responsibilities: Rogers, the junior partner, was responsible for the analytical work of the fund, Soros, the senior partner, was responsible for approving the period for making certain transactions. The heyday of the fund fell on the period 1970-1980 - a time when the partners worked together (Rogers left the firm in 1980). During all this time, the organization worked exclusively in profit, and transactions with securities, commodities and currencies made it possible to increase Soros’s fortune to $100 million. However, there were also times of decline, for example, “Black Monday” in 1987, a week after which annual losses were estimated to be at least 10%. In 1988, Stanley Druckenmiller, a talented and promising asset manager, joined the Quantum team at the invitation of Soros. The collaboration lasted until 2000, when Stanley left the organization. It is believed that this period was one of the most productive in the history of the fund's development.

Soros is often cited as one of the culprits behind the fall of the English pound in 1992, and they also say that he earned at least a billion dollars from this. September 16, the day when this happened, was called “Black Wednesday” by analogy with “Black Monday” in 1987, but Soros always preferred to call it “White Wednesday.”

This was followed by an unsuccessful investment in shares of the Russian company Svyazinvest. Having purchased a quarter of the shares worth $1.875 billion, just a year later he called this investment “the worst of his life” - after the crisis of 1998, the company’s shares fell almost in half. In 2004, Soros managed to get rid of Svyazinvest shares, earning only $625 million for them.

Today, the fund that brought Soros wealth and fame does not operate. He announced its closure in 2011 after changes in American legislation related to the financial system. Since then, George Soros has been actively involved in charity work, while not forgetting to increase his own assets.

Charity, politics, fortune

The Open Community hedge fund was created by Soros in 1979. The organization, which supports the development of culture, science, art and other fields of activity, operates in many countries around the world. At one time, Soros actively collaborated with the USSR, and later with Russia, but financial support for the country was stopped in 2003. In Belarus, due to problems with the authorities, the fund forcibly ceased its activities in 1997.

Annually non-profit projects entrepreneurs, including Open Society, are funded in excess of $300 million. All funds are provided from the personal assets of John Soros. By the way, the financial figure’s fortune is estimated at approximately $25.2 billion in 2017. Some financial investors are confident in Soros’ talent and inner instinct, while others claim that insider information is used for profit. Such information, according to them, Soros received from “ powerful of the world this" - persons who had weight in political and financial circles largest countries peace. Be that as it may, the facts speak for themselves - Soros is today one of the most successful representatives of the global financial market.

George Soros has an active political position. His name was mentioned more than once during the “velvet” revolutions that took place in Europe in the late 90s, he was one of the first to support the Georgian “Rose Revolution” in 2003, and in 2015 he openly called for financial help to Ukraine, after the beginning of the "Revolution of Honor".

Soros is a supporter of laws to legalize marijuana, believing that the ban only gives rise to its illegal trafficking. Over twenty years of active action in this direction, he spent more than 200 million dollars.

Personal life

Today successful financier, a philanthropist and investor in his early eighties, is married to Tamiko Bolton, a girl with Asian roots, 40 years his junior. This is the billionaire's third marriage, and the list of ex-husbands includes Annalize Witshak and Susan Weber. From his first two marriages, Soros has five children - four sons and a daughter. Some of them followed in their father’s footsteps, going into finance, while others connected their lives with completely different areas of activity.

If you are an experienced and active investor or just starting out in this role, then you simply need to know who George Soros is. Since this person is an Investor with a capital letter. By studying his life experience, you will gain a lot of new and very useful information for your investment activities.

Every sphere of human life has its own legendary personalities. These are individuals who became famous for their great achievements, discoveries and other actions that changed the world. If you are interested in the history of the world of finance, you will definitely come across the name of George Soros. This is a controversial figure who has become a subject of imitation, in some cases of censure, but much more often of admiration. Who is George Soros and what is the alchemy of his finances, you can find out in this article.

Today D. Soros is the most famous billionaire, investor and philanthropist. This is how his personality is characterized today. But not everyone knows how this figure appeared on the pages of world history.

As Wikipedia says, he is considered an adherent of the theory of an open society and, at the same time, an opponent of the theory of “market fundamentalism.” Soros is known not only as a financial genius who has earned billions, not only as an investor, but also as the creator of the charitable organization “Soros Foundation.” Also, D. Soros occupies an honorable place on the executive committee of the International CrisisGroup agency.

George's activities most often cause ambiguity in assessments. He is often condemned for his impudence in stock market speculation and is remembered as the man who ruined the Bank of England. Using his name, such a financial term as “Soros” was even formed. That is, stock speculators who move very large sums funds and “move” markets in the direction they need. Also, the name of Soros appeared several times in companies aimed at legalizing marijuana in America for medical purposes and other non-standard social programs.

Biography of George Soros and the first steps of formation

The biography of such a person as George Soros is the story of a man who created himself. The path of his formation passed through many obstacles and difficulties. Now he occupies the top of the rankings of the richest people in the world, and in his youth he made money by picking apples in the suburbs of London. His career became a role model for tens of thousands of novice financiers and traders in every corner of the planet. And, probably, there is no trader who has not at least once in his life met the name surrounded by myths - George Soros. Of course, George appears in the media every now and then as a financial expert and plays the role of an investor or philanthropist in various charitable projects.

Childhood

D. Soros was born into a Jewish family in Budapest in 1930. George's father earned money from publishing and worked part-time as a lawyer. At the very beginning of World War II, using forged documents independently prepared by George's father, the Soros family, fleeing German repression, left Budapest and moved to the UK. There they were able to settle on the outskirts of the capital, London. WITH at this moment George's biography began a new chapter, where the cruel reality of that period of time forced him to quickly grow up.

Soros acquired his primary education at a regular high school, where he studied until he was 17 years old. At that time, George began to become interested in finance and after graduating from school he became a student at the School of Economics in London, where he studied for 3 years. Things weren't going well for his family. Therefore, already at that time, Soros was forced to look for ways to earn money and, without sufficient education, took on any low-paid and not prestigious part-time job, from an apple picker to a dishwasher and a waiter in London pubs.

Youth

After graduating from economics college, George began looking for a real job in his specialty, but all that the young specialist was lucky enough to find was a position as an assistant manager at a small haberdashery factory, having received job responsibilities supplying customers with factory products in an old Ford that was dying out.

Of course, this was not the subject of Soros’ dreams, therefore, while working at the factory, George continued to look for work, along with delivering products, visiting banks and investment companies in London. But, as expected, his attempts always ended in nothing.

Only in 1953 was D. Soros able to get a job in the arbitration department of the Singer and Friedlander company, which was located near the London Mercantile Exchange. For three whole years, the growing investor and future billionaire George Soros tried, by some miracle, to break through the gray mass of his colleagues and stand out in the eyes of his management. But the company’s board, entrenched in its conservative views, did not want to listen to Soros’ innovative ideas. Therefore, being annoyed, the young stockbroker accepted the offer of his old friend’s father and moved to America, deciding to try his luck on Wall Street.

Soros received a new position from a small broker, where the young alchemist of finance began to comprehend the art of international arbitrage, or more precisely, to resell the securities he bought to the end buyers of the stock market. George's work results and his authority began to rise quickly. But climbing career ladder interrupted by the Suet crisis, which broke the tactics of arbitrage operations with securities used by his company.

Maturity

But it was precisely this fact that changed Soros’s life in better side. By inventing a new strategy, George demonstrated to his management his potential and innovative way of thinking. “Internal arbitrage,” which Soros came up with, allowed the company in which he worked not only to stay afloat, but also to quickly become a leader on Wall Street.

After some time, John Kennedy imposed additional taxes on foreign investment, making George's tactics low-profit. However, having gained experience, skills and earned a certain authority in stock exchange circles, George decided to leave the company where he worked and began writing a dissertation that had remained unfinished since the days of the London School of Economics.

Most likely, this was a stage in life when George, who had matured in his worldview, tried to comprehend the experience he had gained and find the most optimal path for his further ascent up the career ladder.

From theory to practice

Soros returned to the stock exchange world in 1966. And George’s new company was the Double Egle exchange-traded fund, to which Soros came with his savings and $100 thousand borrowed from his comrades. It's time to show your theoretical developments in practice! Few people associate the period of Soros’ success with this period of biography, although it is from this point that George’s biography begins to become the most interesting. Having taken the place of executive director of the fund, George Soros began to actively implement his financial philosophy.

A new stage in George S.'s growth was the creation in 1970 of his own exchange-traded fund, Quantum. It was this hedge fund that became a springboard for George to universal recognition. Over the ten years of its operation, the fund was able to earn a huge fortune, annually bringing its creator more than 3000% of profits. This dynamic could not have gone unnoticed by America's elite financial circles, which now welcomed him with open arms.

Then, for a couple of decades, this investor continued to engage in stock speculation, creating hedge funds in specialized financial markets. And the luck that accompanied him allowed him to increase his capital by two or three times, which had already grown to global proportions.

Like any other figure in the world of finance, not all of George Soros's moves brought only profit. It is human nature to make mistakes, which is why D. Soros’ financial alchemy sometimes failed. In 1997, he made a mistake and connected one of the areas of his business with a company from Russia - Svyazinvest, which soon went bankrupt. As a result, George Soros lost a fairly decent part of his capital (exactly how much history is silent). This situation is exactly the fly in the ointment, which shows that in real life any success is associated with a certain share of defeats, and in the financial market, making a profit without losing trades is impossible!

Patronage and charity

However, D. Soros achieved fame not only in connection with the success of his hedge operations. Soros is also known as a philanthropist whose generosity knows no bounds. Its investments in scientific fields and culture are regular and large-scale. He is a frequent guest at various kinds of scientific and cultural events and conferences, donates money to orphanages and schools. Several educational programs operate under its auspices.

In the never-ending process of profit-making, Soros has not lost human face and, unlike the overwhelming number of individuals from Forbes rating, largely remained an ordinary person, who is not alien to compassion and pity.

Books by D. Soros

It is impossible not to mention the book “Alchemy of Finance”, in which George Soros outlined the entire algorithm for his success. Download this book for free you can in the library of our portal!

The Alchemy of Finance will take you into the world of this world-famous investor and philanthropist, make you think as he does, and allow you to learn from the experiences that make him what he is today - one of the most popular figures. world of big money. His career is truly alchemy!

The child of D. Soros’ scientific activity is his treatise “reflexivity of markets”, which has been interpreted into reality by more than one generation of successful traders. According to Soros, all decisions in the financial market are the result of internal beliefs that relate to the future dynamics of the movement of quotes. And based on the fact that almost all human beliefs are often a psychological aspect, this means that people can be purposefully influenced through the media, rumors and verbal interventions. In simple words– the market is a completely controllable mechanism, and in order to change the course of its movement, and even more so to influence the work of the company, even a rumor is enough. And, accordingly, according to Soros, all this can be converted into money.

Problems with law

Hence Soros' problems with the law. Soros has used theoretical developments in crowd control many times in reality. And several times he was officially accused of using insider information. His connections are extensive. Having become a friend, comrade, idol and favorite of many high-ranking officials, it was not difficult for George to be one of the first to learn insider information, which he immediately turned into money. On the other hand, you must admit that anyone in his place would have acted exactly as he did. Having received “closed” data that can be used in their own interests on the stock exchange, any investor or trader will rush to use it in their own interests. This is a business where almost any method is used to achieve goals. The world of money has never been “clean”...

In 2002, an investigation was launched against D. Soros and other well-known stock exchange figures in Paris. trial, and according to its results, fines of € 2.25 million were imposed on George for insider fraud with the securities of the French bank Societe Generale.

Also, this famous investor was involved in several other high-profile market frauds. valuable papers, but the regulatory authorities and courts failed to prove his guilt.

Black Wednesday

But these are not the most basic scandalous situations in which George Soros was a participant. Once, this world-famous schemer brought down the British pound, so much so that this day in the history of financial markets was called “Black Wednesday”.

On September 16, 1992, George opened a deal to sell the British currency in the amount of $10 billion, causing a significant collapse in the value of the British currency. Soros came to the aid of the theory of “reflexive markets” he invented, which in practice caused a wave of massive sales of the pound sterling by other trading participants. The UK currency fell by 1,000 p/p in a matter of hours. For 1992, a currency drop of 1000 points was something out of science fiction. The Bank of England even had to urgently intervene in the situation through large-scale foreign exchange interventions, and the pound sterling itself should be removed from the list of exchange currencies, since its collapse could drag down the currency of the European Union with it.

Then Soros, in just a few hours, was able to earn about $1 billion and his place in the world history of finance.

Yes, on the one hand, this act is subject to censure, since, in pursuing his personal financial interests, investor George neglected the fact that his actions would cause financial harm to others, in particular the Bank of England and Great Britain itself. On the other hand, we all know one simple rule: in the financial market, the profits of some participants are the losses of others. This is how the world of finance is built. This means that George Soros’ actions do not go beyond established standards and differ from other speculations only in their scale.

That is why the story described above in to a greater extent is perceived as a fact in history, when one person did the almost impossible. However, “doing the impossible” can be attributed to the entire biography of George Soros, who grew from an apple picker to 23rd place in the world ranking of the richest people by the popular Forbes publication.

Conclusion

Of course, besides George Soros, in the world of finance you can find not a single dozen famous people who were able to reach even greater heights of popularity and fame than him. But Soros is definitely one of those who stands out from the crowd of billionaires. This was helped by his image of a “financial hooligan” and “Robin Hood”, who was in a hurry to share everything he earned with other, more needy people.

George Soros (Schwartz) is a famous American trader, investor, financier and philanthropist. Creator of the Soros Foundation network of charitable organizations. As of 2016, Soros's fortune was $24.9 billion. Many consider him a speculator and the man who ruined the Bank of England.

George Soros is a controversial personality: for some, he is a financial guru, founder of charitable foundations in 25 countries, an influential investor and loving father five children, for others - “great and terrible.” He is called a master of market speculation, a stock speculator who “collapsed” an English bank. He is a supporter of the legalization of marijuana, etc.

Principles of George Soros

George Soros was born in 1930 in Budapest, into a Jewish family with average income. His father, Tivadar Shvarts, was a lawyer and one of the leading figures in the Jewish community. In 1936, for security reasons, he forged documents: he changed his last name to Hungarian - Shoros. This is how Gyorgy Shoros appeared - the future George Soros.

They say, "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger." These words can also be applied to George Soros. Life gave him good lessons, thanks to which he became what we see him now. One of them: “The lesson I learned during the war is that sometimes you can even lose your own life if you don’t take risks.”

Thanks to the difficulties that befell his family, he developed the following life principles:

• “My principle is to strive to survive first and make money second.”
• “I did not accept the rules proposed by others. If I did this, I would no longer live.”

In London

In 1947 the family moved to. Subsequently, Soros would write: “I was lucky that my father was one of those who did not act as people usually act.”

In the UK, Soros goes to study at the London School of Economics and Political Science, whose motto is “Know the reason for things.” Many influential people in society graduated from this school, including John Kennedy.

At the London School, John Soros met the Austrian lecturer Karl Popper, a sociologist and philosopher, whose idea of ​​an open society influenced the entire later life Soros. The essence of this idea is that people in an open society should rely on their own intelligence and critical thinking when making decisions, and not on the system of prohibitions that is characteristic of closed society. That is, a person should think with his own head, and not be a cog in society.

Three years later, Soros successfully completed school. It would seem that after graduating from such a prestigious educational institution, a direct path to big business was open to him. But he first works at a haberdashery factory as an assistant manager, then travels to English seaside resorts as a traveling salesman. In 1953, he got a job in the arbitration department of London companies, but he quickly became bored with routine work.

At one time he had to work as a porter at the station, as a waiter, and even as an apple picker, so it cannot be said that he shunned work. But it would be strange to think that a person with high intelligence, knowledge, prestigious education and ambition would be satisfied with the position of a traveling salesman. He is attracted to the financial sector, but when he tries to get a job at a bank, he is rejected everywhere. And one of the main reasons is his nationality.

Start of financial activity

A friend of Soros's father, who owns a small brokerage firm, invites him to his place, and in 1956 George Soros crosses Atlantic Ocean and ends up in New York. From this time it begins financial activities. In a brokerage office, he learns the secrets of buying and selling securities. On the so-called external arbitrage - buying shares in one country and selling them in another - he manages to make good money. In addition, George is entrepreneurial and comes up with his own way of trading securities, which he calls internal arbitrage: he sells combined securities separately even before they can be officially separated from each other.

And here he follows another one of his life principle: “I don’t play within a given set of rules, I strive to change the rules of the game.”

However, changes in legislation, in particular the fees introduced by the government, made this business unprofitable, and Soros went into writing his dissertation and philosophical treatise “The Heavy Burden of Consciousness” for three years, from 1963 to 1966. Over time, he realizes that business attracts him more than philosophy.

Creation of the Quantum Fund

Since 1966, the investment activity of George Soros began. The capital of the company he founded initially amounts to 100 thousand dollars. Over the course of three years of work, he makes a significant profit and becomes a co-owner and director of the Double Eagle fund, which later grew into (named after the creator of quantum mechanics).

Quantum is a hedge fund, a private investment fund not available to the general public, managed by a professional investment manager. Due to the lack of clear regulatory regulation, hedge funds are free to use various financial instruments and choose strategies when investing money in any market. The result of the work of such funds can be not only profits, but also losses - so Quantum had to experience not only ups, but also downs.

Nevertheless, Quantum provided its investors with an annual return of over 30% on shares, and in total they received $32 billion - this is the largest profit in the entire history of hedge funds. And Quantum’s capital by 1990 was already $10 billion.

"White Wednesday"

However, Soros became famous to the world not for this, but because in one day he earned $1 billion by playing on the fall of the English pound against German mark. The day of September 16, 1992, which became “black Wednesday” for English banks, became for Soros, in his words, “white Wednesday.” He himself acquired the reputation of the man who broke the Bank of England.

He did this using the Global Macro strategy: the fund manager, based on an assessment of the macroeconomic position occupied by different regions and countries in these regions, makes a conclusion about which asset classes will go down and which will go up.

For several years, Soros bought British currency in small quantities. In addition, he approached the largest American investment banks with his idea for financial support. Having the appropriate capital, Soros began to play to reduce the English pound - to short. Selling 5 billion British pounds at once made it possible to reduce the exchange rate of the pound to a critical minimum, and repurchasing the pounds that had fallen in price made it possible to make a profit of 1 billion.

Failures

Of course, playing on the stock exchange is associated with risks and failures. They didn’t bypass Soros either. Your worst investment and main mistake in life, he named the purchase in 1997 of a controlling stake in the Russian telecommunications company Svyazinvest, on which he lost almost $2 billion: due to the crisis that happened in 1998, the price of the shares fell by more than half, and he was able to sell them only after numerous attempts in 2004 for $625 million.

Later he had other failures, albeit on a smaller scale, so he decided to start financing scientific and cultural projects.

Charity

George Soros invests a lot of money in charity. He founded several charitable foundations that have their branches in other countries: Africa, Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, Asia and the United States of America. These are the Open Society Institute, Stefan Batory Foundation, Soros Foundation, which support the creative intelligentsia, help scientists and the opposition in countries where there is no democratic regime. In total, over the past 30 years, Soros has spent over $5 billion on charity. It is said that he spends approximately $300 million a year on non-profit projects. And in 2010, he gave $332 million to his open society charity, earning him the title of America's most generous billionaire.

Strategy for making a profit from Soros

It is known that Soros managed to earn significant profits using the so-called “bearish” tactics (playing short).

He adhered to the theory of reflexivity of stock markets, according to which decisions to buy and sell securities are made based on prices expected in the future. And expectation is a psychological category. Because the stock Exchange- these are also people (investors, traders, etc.), then they can be influenced by information through financial and analytical publications, the media, and currency speculators. “Spells can influence the decisions of people who shape the course of events,” he says.

It is believed that George Soros may owe his success in making a profit both to his own gift of financial foresight and to the skillful use of insider information that was provided to him by people who have weight in the economic and political spheres of the world's leading countries.

For example, in 2002, a Paris court found him guilty of using confidential information for profit, thanks to which he earned $2 million from shares in a large French bank, and sentenced him to a corresponding fine.

Soros shares his thoughts and ideas in articles and books. Entrepreneurs and financiers will be interested in such books as “Alchemy of Finance”, “Soros about Soros. Staying Ahead of Change,” “A New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The 2008 Credit Crisis and Its Implications.” In addition, George Soros is an honorary doctorate from the New York School social research, Oxford and Yale Universities.

On his initiative, the Central European University was opened in 1990 in Prague, Budapest and Warsaw.

Currently, George Soros lives in the penthouse of one of the skyscrapers in New York. He is undemanding in everyday life and at the same time says: “I have always felt like an exceptional person.”

George Soros, a world-famous financier, received the title of “modern Robin Hood” from Times magazine because, according to the publication, he takes money from the rich and gives it to the poor, in the modern world - these are countries of Eastern Europe and Russia. Soros, making huge money from speculation against central banks developed countries, invests them in projects to create the so-called “open society” in post-communist countries located in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

August 12, 1930 in Budapest, in the very ordinary family A boy named Djord Schwartz was born, whom the whole world later recognized as George Soros. George's father, Tivadar Schwartz, was from a humble and poor family, while the parents of his mother, Erzebet Sutz, were very wealthy people.

Tivadar was a very versatile person. He was a lawyer, occupied a very prominent place in the Jewish community of Budapest, at the same time he founded a literary magazine, of which he became editor for some time, and regularly published his work there as an Esperantist writer. Soros's parents came from Jewish families, but to call them Orthodox Jews there was no way.

Tivadara Schwartz was not a workaholic. He often preferred having fun, relaxing in the pool, cafe or ice skating rink, proud of the fact that he could afford to work much less than others. Sometimes this even led to the loss of potential clients who were afraid to entrust their affairs to such a unique lawyer. However, Tivadar was quite able to maintain such a frivolous lifestyle thanks to the decent income generated by the properties owned by the family. Soros' father took particular pleasure in taking risks, a sense of danger, and the joy of being able to avoid sad consequences. George Soros was able to adopt this skill from his father, which became very useful in the future, when he began to play on the stock exchange and not only earn money, but also enjoy the risk associated with these operations.

Soros's father became a volunteer during the First World War, without experiencing any special patriotic feelings. It just became another opportunity for him to walk on the edge of a knife.

Tivadar fought for Austria-Hungary and was captured by Russia. He was sent to Siberia, to a prison camp, from where he managed to escape and returned to Budapest, having gone through a difficult and dangerous path home.

George and his brother Paul could always count on their father to give them any amount of money, no matter how much they asked for. Thus, Tivadar tried to instill in his sons a responsible attitude towards money. Despite a fairly decent income, the head of the family himself managed money rather ineptly, which left very serious gaps in the family budget.

Memories of financial difficulties were firmly imprinted in the memories of the young Soros and became another incentive for him to earn as much as possible. On the other hand, the ease with which his father treated money was passed on to George himself, allowing him to spend simply huge sums on charity.

Last name change

In the 1930s, the Soros family had to go through difficult times. It was at this time, or more precisely in 1936, that the decision was made to change the Jewish surname Schwartz to the Hungarian Soros (“Shorosh”). Translated from Hungarian it means “follower”, and in Esperanto it means “to soar” in the future tense, which Tivadar really liked.

In 1944, the Nazis came to Hungary. They invited all Jews to register with the German administration. Tivadar immediately realized that this would not bring anything good to his family and decided to get lost among the Hungarians who profess Christianity. To do this, all family members were given fake documents, after which they dispersed. different parts Budapest, trying to attract as little attention as possible.

In order to protect his sons, Tivadar even obtained certificates stating that circumcision was performed solely for medical reasons. As a result of fascist repressions, 440 thousand Jews were killed, but the Soros family managed to survive.

The financial situation of the Soros at that time left much to be desired. Tivadar had to show all his abilities in order to find a way out of a wide variety of very difficult situations. He not only took care of his relatives, but also helped many Jews of Budapest obtain false documents, and for the poor this service was free, but for the rich it cost a lot of money, sometimes 20 times more expensive than for people with average incomes. According to George Soros himself, this was his father’s finest hour, when he worked like never before, without experiencing the slightest fear or despair. The threat of fascist reprisals hung over the Soros until January 1945, when Red Army troops liberated Budapest.

Local residents welcomed their liberators with open arms, but when faced with the prospect of life under a socialist regime, their attitude towards the Soviet troops changed noticeably. Socialism (and even more so communism), like fascism, was regarded by the Hungarians exclusively as a threat. During the two post-war years, the Hungarian economy faced hyperinflation. It was then that George Soros took his first steps in the foreign exchange market.

To Moscow or to London?

Life in post-war Hungary was unpromising for George, and at the age of 17 he decided to leave Budapest. The father asked his son where he intended to go, and George replied: “To Moscow, to see what this socialism is like, or to London: the BBC is there (then the whole family listened to the BBC).”

Tivadar helped George accept final decision, dissuading him from going to Moscow. According to Soros himself, it was his father who instilled in him the worldview that later allowed him to earn huge money and become a great investor.

Distant relatives of the Soros lived in Britain, whom Tivadar once helped escape from Hungary using forged documents. It was with them that George settled after his arrival in London. At the beginning it was very difficult for him, he even had to go hungry. It’s hard to imagine, but one day the future billionaire was jealous of a cat that was eating herring right on the street.

In 1949, George entered the London School of Economics, where he studied for three years. In order to somehow survive, he had to constantly look for odd jobs: either in a haberdashery factory, or as a traveling salesman, or as a waiter, an apple picker, or as a porter at a station, without giving up the hope of eventually becoming a bank employee. Despite his meager budget, which at that time amounted to about 4 pounds a week, George did not neglect maintaining his personal accounts. He kept careful records of all income and expenses, trying to reduce his expenses so that there was still something left from his modest earnings.

In 1953, Soros graduated from the London School of Economics and went to work in the arbitration department of Singer and Friedlander. The company's office was located next to the stock exchange, and George's manager was involved in trading shares of gold mining companies.

Career in the USA. The goal is to earn half a million

In 1956, the father of a London friend of Soros invited him to the United States to work in a small brokerage firm he owned on Wall Street. At first, George was engaged in international arbitration, that is, he bought and sold securities in different countries ah, earning income from the difference in prices. But after some time, the Suez crisis broke out and this type of business began to gradually fade away.

Then Soros refocused his activities on the new kind brokerage business, which he himself called "internal arbitrage", the essence of which was to sell combined securities (stocks, bonds and warrants) separately before they were officially divided.

At first, the income from this activity was quite decent, but then President Kennedy introduced additional taxes on foreign investment, which had a very negative impact on profit margins. Soros again had to look for a new source of income.

Immediately after his arrival in America, Soros began investing, using his modest savings, as well as the funds of his friends and acquaintances, as capital. After some time, these operations were already generating good income. George set a goal for himself - to earn half a million dollars in order to quit his job and take up philosophy, which he then considered his true calling.

But appetite comes with eating. As his income grew at a rate that exceeded his wildest expectations, George's goals became more and more ambitious. He no longer dreamed of leaving the investment business, because this game brought not only money, but also the pleasure of risk and his own talents.

After graduating from business school, Soros began writing a dissertation, which he unsuccessfully tried to complete for three years (from 1963 to 1966). George was not at all satisfied with the results of his work on the treatise “The Heavy Burden of Consciousness” and he decided that he was much better at investing than at philosophizing or holding the post of a top manager. At that time he was vice president of the Arnhold & S. Bleichroeder company.

In 1967, Soros managed to convince the company's management to establish and transfer under its management the offshore fund First Eagle. Just two years later, another fund was formed, this time a hedge fund, called Double Eagle, the management of which was also entrusted to Soros. But after some time, George had to give up managing the funds due to decisions made by regulators. Then he, together with Jim Rogers, founded his own fund called Quantum. This happened in 1970. By 1980, as a result of speculation, the profitability of the Quantum fund reached 3365% per year, which largely provided Soros with his enormous fortune, the size of which by 2009 amounted to about $11 billion.

Market reflexivity theory

George Soros is not only a very talented investor, but also a generous billionaire, which puts him on par with such outstanding people, like Carnegie and Rockefeller. At the same time, Soros himself considers his intellectual abilities to be his main wealth. From childhood, he wanted to become the next Keynes or Einstein, being interested not only in finance, but also in a much greater degree in philosophy.

Karl Popper and George Soros

During his studies at the London School of Economics, Soros took a course from the Anglo-Austrian philosopher Karl Popper, whose ideas interested him greatly. The theory of "reflexivity", formulated by Popper, states that in processes involving humans, the observer is part of the objective reality that he observes.

As a result, the observation itself can influence the reality that the observer analyzes. This is the main difference between living and inanimate nature. It was on the basis of this theory that Soros formulated his “theory of market reflexivity” and with great success used it for his own exchange transactions.

The essence of the theory is that traders make their decisions, whether buying or selling securities, solely based on their own expectations of changes in price levels. Any expectation is an exclusively psychological category that can be influenced through informational influence. The sentiments and expectations of trading participants inevitably affect their transactions, resulting in a distortion of the influence of fundamental market factors.

According to Soros himself, it was this approach that allowed him to achieve amazing success on the stock exchange. But people who have worked with him believe that he relies primarily on his intuition and foresight, and his philosophy often has nothing to do with it. For example, son Robert says about his father: “He buys when his back hurts, and sells when the pain goes away.”

The man who brought down the Bank of England

George Soros became famous precisely for his currency speculation. Traders who have been working in the market for a long time still remember September 16, 1992, a day that went down in the history of the foreign exchange market as “Black Wednesday”. Then Soros opened a short position on the pound for $10 billion, and by closing it, he became $1 billion richer in just one day.

The result of this operation was that the Bank of England had to carry out large-scale intervention and, after some time, withdraw the pound sterling from the mechanism for regulating exchange rates European countries, as a result of which the pound rapidly fell in price against all major currencies. After the incident, Soros began to be called “the man who brought down the Bank of England.”

Not all of George Soros' deals were successful. A striking example An unsuccessful project could be the operation of creating in 1997, together with Potanin, the Mustcom offshore company, which bought for $1.875 billion a 25% stake in Svyazinvest OJSC, the value of which fell by more than half after the 1998 crisis. For Soros, this was the worst investment of his entire life. In 2004, he finally managed to get rid of these securities. The amount of the deal concluded with Access Industries, managed by Leonard Blavatnik, a shareholder of TNK-BP, amounted to only $625 million. Blavatnik himself sold shares of OJSC Svyazinvest to Comstar-UTS, part of AFK Sistema, at the end of 2006 for 1.3 billion. One of the most common accusations made against Soros is the use of insider information, which he receives from the most senior officials in the governments of different countries and the management bodies of the largest corporations.

In 2002, Soros was even forced by a Paris court to pay a fine of 2.2 million euros for using confidential information. According to the prosecution, illegally obtained information allowed the investor to earn $2 million on shares of the French bank Societe Generale.

Many investors try to make their transactions on the stock exchange as reliable as possible. But not George Soros, who has an increased appetite for risk, using borrowed funds and doing all the things that most other players try to avoid, and takes satisfaction in the excitement and the fact that he is in Once again came out victorious difficult situation, which I fell into of my own free will. Soros himself said that 1944 was the best year of his life. Then he and his entire family were literally on the verge of death. His father helped his compatriots obtain false documents, risking his own life every day.

These documents saved the lives of many Hungarian Jews. Little George saw all this, and the same love of risk and danger that was inherent in his father was passed on to him. “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 country. And my family was lucky. My father was not afraid to take risks. The life lesson I learned during the war is that sometimes you can lose everything, even your own life, if you don’t take risks.”

Charity and Soros foundations

George Soros began to engage in charity work in 1979, when his first foundation, the Open Society Foundation, was formed. Then in South Africa, engulfed by apartheid, under his leadership a foundation was organized whose tasks included supporting black students at the University of Cape Town. In Eastern Europe, the first Soros fund began operating in 1984. It is quite logical that this happened in Hungary. Soros also paid attention to Russia, where in 1987 he decided to support an open society. His funds were opened throughout almost the entire territory of the post-Soviet space.

In addition, in 1992, the International Science Foundation (ISF) began its work, the main task of which was to help scientists in Russia and the countries of the former USSR in their work during a very difficult transition period, which could allow them to continue research and not immigrate to other countries . The ISF paid out more than $115 million and had a huge impact in reducing the so-called “brain drain,” which ultimately helped prevent Russia's intellectual resources from being used for destructive purposes. In 1990, with the help of funding from George Soros, the Central European University was founded and began operating in Budapest, Prague and Warsaw.

At the end of 2003, Soros decided to stop his charitable activities in Russia. Less than a year later, the Open Society Foundation stopped making grants. But those structures that were created earlier continued their work even after the termination of funding from the American investor. Among them we can name Moscow high school social and economic sciences, the Foundation for Culture and Art "Institute PRO ARTE", the International Charitable Foundation named after D. S. Likhachev, the non-profit foundation for the support of book publishing, education and new information technologies "Pushkin Library". Charitable organizations created with money from George Soros operate in more than 50 countries around the world.

Most of them are located in Eastern Europe, Africa, Latin America, Asia and the USA. Their main task is to support the infrastructure and institutions of an open society. Every year, these funds transfer hundreds of millions of dollars to support individual categories of citizens and entire countries.

George Soros Strategy

What is the secret of such amazing financial success of George Soros, whose fortune before the 2008 crisis was about 7.2 billion dollars? Soros conducted almost all of his transactions through a secretive offshore company Quantum Fund NV, which is registered on the Caribbean island of Curacao, under the jurisdiction of the Netherlands.

This fund still remains the largest in the financial empire of George Soros.

If we compare two brilliant financiers of recent times - Warren Buffett and George Soros, then there are much more differences in their characters and vision of the world than similarities. Buffett prefers long-term investments and does not try to exert any significant influence on the market. Soros, on the contrary, strives for fame and global recognition. His figure on the global financial Olympus is very ambiguous and contradictory.

In his youth, Soros was seriously interested in philosophy. Perhaps this was the reason for his varied activities, which include charity, participation in public life and literary work. In his approach to conducting trading operations, Soros is a 100% “bear”, that is, he prefers to play short.

That is why most of his wealth was earned during periods of serious global crises and with the help of an individual approach, called the “reflexivity theory of stock markets.” Soros believes that the price of currencies (his favorite trading instrument) is determined based on future expectations. Anyone who knows how to influence these expectations gains control over the foreign exchange market. The basis of Soros's operations are short-term speculative transactions, for which he actively uses borrowed funds.

He considers his absolute advantage to be that he does not have a specific trading style. In each specific situation, George will try to adapt to current market conditions. For example, 10 years ago his funds specialized in currency transactions, but today investments in industry have become the main instrument. Today, global economic trends are receiving more and more attention from this great investor. Soros considers intuition one of the foundations for making trading decisions and tries to actively develop it.

It is quite normal practice for him to create a possible development of events with the help of a hypnotist, and then monitor how accurately it will be realized. Soros believes that weak analytical skills are by no means an obstacle to those who want to get rich through the financial market. After all, he does not classify himself as a specialist in the field of securities.
Alchemy of finance by George Soros. One of the main qualities that allowed Soros to reach the heights of financial success was his caution and self-criticism.

According to the investor himself, this is what forced him to be constantly on alert, to calculate all possible scenarios and make decisions with lightning speed. Every novice trader will read in any book about the basics of trading and investing the rule that says that when conducting trading operations you should never give in to emotions. But Soros has been violating this rule for many years; he rejoices at his victories like a child and is very upset when he has to record losses.

Legalize marijuana and down with Bush!

George Soros came to Manhattan 50 years ago with just a few dollars and huge ambitions. Today he lives in a prestigious penthouse in one of the New York skyscrapers. His wealth and influence on modern world so great that it exceeds the capabilities of entire states whose flags fly near the UN headquarters just a few steps from his home. George Soros does not flaunt his power and wealth - he does not buy expensive cars, does not invest money in sports clubs, luxury castles or other “toys” for the elite of this world.

Soros demonstrates his limitless possibilities through his own actions, be it charity or activities in financial or political sphere, sometimes collapsing currencies or setting the vector for the development of entire regions. George Soros actively advocates for the legalization of same-sex marriage and allowing free trade in marijuana for medical purposes. He opposed George W. Bush's reelection to a second term and spent more than $23 million in an attempt to prevent this event.

This is probably how a billionaire philosopher should behave, who is aware that he has every opportunity to change the world for the better. “I have always felt like an exceptional person,” admits George Soros.

George Soros was married twice, but both of his marriages ended unsuccessfully. He has five children: three from his first wife - Robert, Andrea, Jonathan and two - from his second, Alexander and Gregory. In 2004, Soros retired from managing the Quantum Endowment Fund, handing over the reins of the firm to his eldest son Robert. George's older brother, Paul Soros, shares his famous relative's interests in investing and philanthropy.

We continue to publish articles about success stories famous people. George Soros- without a doubt a well-known financier and investor. At the time of publication of this article, he also became involved in charity work. George Soros is known not only as an investor (like ), but also as a speculator. There are ambivalent attitudes towards George Soros around the world. But everyone agrees that he is an extraordinary and interesting person.

George Soros was born on August 12, 1930 into a Jewish family in Budapest. Father Tivadar Soros (Shorosh) was a lawyer and tried to get into the publishing business. Soros's father fought in World War I against Russia and was captured by the Russians, ending up in camps for three years. This is probably the reason that his son George Soros does not like Russia and Russians. This follows from numerous media publications.

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

In the second world war Soros's father was involved in forging documents, which saved many Jews from death. Those who did nothing were in greater danger than those who took the risk of falsifying documents. Soros Jr. learned this life lesson. As he says: sometimes you can lose everything, including your own life, if you don’t take risks.

After World War II, George Soros moved to England, where he worked as a waiter. It also happened that he finished the food for the guests, because... I was completely broke. George Soros spent the post-war years in poverty and doing odd jobs. For example, I worked 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 became not only 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, paradoxical as it may sound, can really help you make money.

At the age of 22, Soros received a diploma 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 an intern 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 at an investment firm and began to engage in foreign exchange trading.

In 1963, Soros went to work for the company Arnold & Blackhreder, a leading American firm for instictions abroad. This is where J. Soros’s knowledge of several European languages ​​and connections in the Old World came in handy.

Previously, it was believed that economic phenomena were objective in nature. However, according to George Soros, if we consider economics a science, we must be objective. So here are the participants economic processes(Individuals, households and firms all do not always behave rationally. So Soros understood that what we think about stock markets and financial markets has little to do with what is actually happening there.

Soon, George Soros, with the support of Arnold & Blackhreder, established an offshore investment fund and entrusted the management of this fund to Soros. He understood that she was much better at investing than working among senior management. Subsequently, Soros invested both his personal money and the money of many of his clients through offshore companies. Offshore funds allowed tax evasion.

In the early seventies, things weren't going well for many of the wolves of Wall Street. At the same time, George Soros was an exception to the rule and his investments sometimes rose in price by tens of percent per year. George Soros bought shares of companies from Europe and Asia and tried to acquire real business pearls for pennies. Soros also became famous for collapsing the English pound sterling. It is unclear what was the cause and what was the effect. In any case, we know for sure that Soros sold British pounds on the eve of the collapse of this currency. Along with the talented financier, his investors also rapidly grew rich. By 1980, the Soros fund had never closed a year with losses for 12 years in a row without exception, and in 1980 his fund showed a growth rate of 102% per annum. But later there were also unsuccessful years. In the 80s, Soros became more active in speculation, influencing the dynamics of markets, as well as the exchange rates of entire countries, because the size of managed funds has already become significant. Soros made a lot of money from these fluctuations in stock prices and currencies.

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

The secret of George Soros' 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 quickly make tough decisions. Active risk management in a dynamically changing situation requires determination and does not require much thought. Wherein work in progress with huge sums. According to many financiers, to work with such huge money you need to have balls of iron.

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

Those who worked for Soros say that he has very developed intuition. I think that this intuition 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 markets are affected by both objective and subjective factors.

It is also possible that one of the reasons for the success of a talented investor was his social circle - state leaders who, when communicating, could provide valuable information for investment.

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

George Soros and charity

Soros is known as a person who is actively involved in charity work. And the first charitable foundation dates back to 1979. Long time Soros was also involved in charity work, including in Russia. Some people believe that charity in Russia - this is a cover for some kind of espionage business or that the opposition was previously financed in this way. There are similar opinions regarding Soros funds from residents of other countries.

Is George Soros an enemy of Russia?

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

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