Soros George state. Financial activities of George Soros

George Soros - worth 26 billion, start-up capital began to collect from an income of 4 pounds a week, the first jobs that he mastered: an apple picker, a waiter and a loader at the station.

George Soros

George Soros repeated for many years the phrase which he remembered - "first of all, strive to survive, and only then earn money." George Soros did not accept the rules written by others, but wrote his own.

Childhood of George Soros

George Soros was born on August 12, 1930 in Budapest. In a family of Jews with an average income. His father was a lawyer and was engaged in the publishing business. In 1947, fleeing Nazi repression, the Soros family emigrated to the UK using forged documents that their father had made. Then Soros was 17 years old. Soros entered and successfully graduated from the London School of Economics.

George Soros got his first job

George Soros got a job in England at a haberdashery factory. Although the position was called "assistant manager", in fact it was the job of a salesperson. Later, George became a traveling salesman: he drove around in a wretched Ford along the coast of Wales, offering goods to merchants. Keeping the hope of going to work in a bank, he was a waiter in a restaurant, and picked apples, and even at the station - a porter. Already at that time he scrupulously led the bookkeeping of his finances. “When I started, my weekly budget was 4 pounds, then I began to cut expenses to less than 4 pounds, I kept a diary of my income and expenses,” the current billionaire recalls with a smile.

Moving George Soros to the USA

In search of new options, George Soros immigrates to the US in 1956. This was the beginning of the personal growth of George Soros. First aid was provided by a friend of my father from London. He arranged for George to work in a brokerage firm, where the future billionaire mastered securities trading - international arbitration. Soros invented his own method of trading - internal arbitrage. Its essence was to sell separately combined securities of shares, bonds and warrants before they could be officially separated from each other.

Business George Soros became unprofitable after Kennedy's introduction of new fees and he took up philosophy again. He is trying to work on his dissertation, which he started writing after graduating from business school. Soros resumed writing the treatise The Heavy Burden of Consciousness. But in 1966, George Soros decides to go into business again, leaving his work unfinished.

During his time at Arnhold & S. Bleichroeder, George Soros founded an offshore investment fund, First Eagle. Later, in 1969, he established another hedge fund called Double Eagle. George Soros managed these funds until 1970. In 1969, George Soros turned his attention to a new fund, Quantum. Thanks to speculative transactions with securities, over the 10 years of the fund's existence, the profitability was 3365% per year. Mostly this fund provided George Soros with a huge fortune.

In 1997 George Soros failed after acquiring a 25% stake Russian company Svyazinvest. This event was the beginning of the "black streak", when almost all investments brought losses. Soros decided to leave the business and do charity work - financing education and scientific research.

George Soros developed his own "theory of market reflexivity" , based on the views of his teacher Karl Popper, and successfully applied it in the game on the stock exchange. The essence of this theory is that traders, in order to make decisions about buying and selling securities, proceed from the estimated future price. And the expectations of market participants can be influenced psychologically in order to change the influence of fundamental factors on the market.

George Soros took risks by trading with credit, although the market usually prefers more reliable methods. But up to the top personal growth he has already reached, especially loves the excitement of the stock game and the opportunity to emerge as a “winner” from a difficult situation.

George Soros now lives in an apartment in downtown New York, not far from the UN headquarters. Half a century ago, he came to Manhattan with a couple of dollars and big ambitions. Today, it has more influence and capital than some states. George Soros managed to realize the American dream, earn 20 billion in just a year and become famous for the collapse of the Bank of England. He will remain a mystery to the entire world in many respects. Neither journalists nor biographers can come to a consensus: what is the secret of George Soros' success and what are his motives.

Your personal and financial growth he expressed in thrift by constantly optimizing the items of income and expenses and does not lose sight of them for a day. Ask George Soros at any time what income was yesterday, he will answer without a pause…..

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

In any sphere of human life there are legendary personalities. These are individuals who have become famous for their great achievements, discoveries and other deeds that have changed the world. If you are interested in the history of the world of finance, be sure to come across the name of George Soros. This is a controversial figure who has become a subject for imitation, in some cases censure, but much more often - 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. So characterize his personality 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 founder of the Soros Foundation charitable organization. Also, D. Soros takes an honorable place in the executive committee of the International CrisisGroup agency.

George's activities most often cause ambiguity in assessments. Often he is condemned for impudence in stock speculation and is remembered as the man who ruined the Bank of England. Using his name, even such a financial term as “soros” was formed. That is, stock speculators who turn very large sums funds and “move” the markets in the direction they need. Also, the name of Soros flashed 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 went 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 earned by picking apples in the suburbs of London. His career became a role model for tens of thousands of novice financiers in every corner of the planet. And, probably, there is no such trader who at least once in his life would not meet the name surrounded by myths - George Soros. Of course, because George now and then appears in the media as a financial expert and plays the role of an investor or patron in various charitable projects.

Childhood

D. Soros was born into a Jewish family in Budapest in 1930. George's father earned money as a publisher and worked as a barrister. At the very beginning of the Second World War, using fake documents made by George's father himself, the Soros family, fleeing German repression, left Budapest, moving to the UK. There they were able to settle in the suburbs of the capital - London. FROM this moment George's biography new chapter, where the cruel reality of that period of time made him grow up quickly.

Soros acquired his primary education in a regular high school, where he studied until the age of 17. At that time, George became 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 were not going well for his family. Therefore, already at that time, Soros was forced to look for ways to earn money and, not having 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 graduation economic college, George set about looking for a real job in his specialty, but all that he was lucky enough to find young specialist is the position of an assistant manager in a small haberdashery factory, having received in his official duties supplying customers with factory products on an old Ford that was living out its days.

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

Only in 1953, D. Soros was able to get a job in the arbitration operations department of the Singer and Friedlander company, which was located near the London Mercantile Exchange. For three whole years, the rising 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 leadership. But the company's board, established in its conservative views, did not want to listen to the innovative ideas of Soros. Therefore, being annoyed, the young stock trader accepted the offer of the father of an old friend and moved to America, deciding to try his luck on Wall Street.

Soros received a new position at a small broker, where the young alchemist of finance began to comprehend the art of international arbitration, more precisely, to resell the securities he bought up to the end buyers of the stock market. The results of George's work and his authority began to go up rapidly. But climbing career ladder interrupted the Suet Crisis, which broke his firm's arbitrage tactics with securities.

Maturity

But it was this fact that changed Soros's life in better side. By inventing a new strategy, George demonstrated to his management his potential and non-standard way thinking. The “internal arbitrage” that Soros came up with allowed the company he worked for not only to stay afloat, but also quickly break into the Wall Street leadership.

After some time, John F. Kennedy imposed additional fees on foreign investment, making George's tactics low-return. However, having gained experience, skills and earned a certain authority in stock exchange circles, George decided to leave the company in which he worked and set about writing a thesis, which had remained unfinished since the days of the London School of Economics.

Most likely, it was a stage in life when George, who had matured in his worldviews, tried to comprehend the experience he had gained and find the most optimal path for his further career climb.

From theory to practice

Soros returned to the exchange world in 1966. And George's new company was the Double Egle exchange fund, to which Soros came with his savings and 100 thousand dollars borrowed from his comrades. It's time to show your theoretical achievements in practice! With this period of biography, few people associate the period of Soros's success, although it was with this place George's biography and is starting to get most interesting. Having taken the place of the executive director of the fund, George Soros began to actively implement his philosophy of finance.

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

Further, 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 steps of George Soros brought only profit. It is human nature to err, and therefore the alchemy of finances of D. Soros sometimes failed. In 1997, he made a mistake and linked one of his lines of business with a Russian company, Svyazinvest, which soon went bankrupt. As a result, George Soros lost a pretty decent part of his capital (how much history is silent). This situation is precisely that fly in the ointment in a barrel of honey, 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, he achieved fame for D. Soros not only in connection with the success of his hedge operations. Soros is also known as a philanthropist, whose generosity knows no bounds. His investments in science and culture are regular and extensive. He is a frequent guest at various scientific and cultural events and conferences, donates money to orphanages and schools. Several educational programs operate under its auspices.

In the course of an endless process of making a profit, Soros did not lose his human face and, unlike the vast majority of personalities from Forbes rating, in many ways 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 of his success. 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 the way he does, and allow you to learn from the experience that has made him who he is today as one of the most popular figures. world of big money. His career is truly alchemy!

Child scientific activity D. Soros is a treatise written by him “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 quotes. And based on the fact that almost all human beliefs are more often a psychological aspect, it 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 the problems of Soros with the law. Soros used the 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 data, which he immediately turned into money. On the other hand, you will agree 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 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, in relation to D. Soros and other well-known stock figures in Paris, a trial, and according to its results, George was fined € 2.25 million for insider fraud with the securities of the French bank Societe Generale.

Also, this well-known investor was involved in several more high-profile frauds in the securities market, but it was not possible to prove his guilt to the regulatory authorities and the courts.

Black Wednesday

But these are not the most basic scandalous situations in which George Soros was a participant. Once, this world-famous scammer 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 $10 billion sell deal on the British, causing a significant collapse in the value of the British currency. Soros came to the aid of the theory of "reflexive markets" invented by him, which in practice caused a wave of massive sales of the pound sterling by other bidders. The British currency collapsed by 1,000 p/p in a matter of hours. For 1992, the fall of the currency by 1000 points was something of a fantasy. The Bank of England even had to urgently intervene in the situation through large-scale foreign exchange interventions, and remove the pound sterling from the list of exchange currencies, since its collapse could drag the EU currency down.

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 a subject for censure, since, in pursuing his personal financial interests, investor George neglected the fact that his actions would cause financial damage to others, in particular the Bank of England and the UK itself. On the other hand, we all know one simple rule - in the financial market, the profit of some participants is the loss of others. This is how the world of finance is built. This means that the actions of George Soros do not go beyond the established standards and differ from other speculations only in their scale.

That is why the story described above is more 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 in the popular Forbes publication.

Conclusion

Of course, in addition to George Soros, in the world of finance you can meet 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 is an American financier, trader and investor, also famous for his philanthropic activities. life path Soros gives rise to many doubts and is regarded ambiguously: someone speaks of him as a noble creator of a network of charitable institutions, others call him a speculator who is also guilty of currency crises.

George Soros was born on August 12, 1930 in Budapest. His real name is Gyorgy Shorosh. The future financier was born in a middle-class family Jewish origin. Father Tivadar Shorosh worked in the legal industry and also tried to publish his own magazine in the less popular Esperanto. Tivadar participated in the First World War and managed to return to his native Budapest only after three years of captivity in Siberia.

Therefore, his father taught George, first of all, the art of survival. Mother Elizabeth, who did not know such horrors of war, looked at the world in a positive way and introduced her son to art. Most of all, the young Soros liked painting and drawing. In addition, he made great strides in the study foreign languages: In addition to his native Hungarian, he spoke English, German and French. Also, the guy was fond of sailing, swimming, tennis. And with young years always beat his friends at Monopoly.

Classmates recall that at school the future financier behaved boldly and defiantly, loved to participate in fights. At the same time, his tongue is perfectly suspended, and what he believed in, Soros defended almost at the cost of his life. George was an average student, sometimes demonstrating results, sometimes sliding down to the level of a C student.

Soros was less than 10 years old when the brutal and merciless Second World War. The one million community of Jews in Hungary began to live in fear that they would suffer the fate of their exterminated compatriots from other European countries. The lifestyle of the Soros family has become a constant desire to hide. For weeks they huddled in basements, and at best - in the basement and attics of the houses of acquaintances who agreed to receive them for a few days.

Tivadar Shorosh in those days was engaged in forging documents. Thanks to this, the man saved the lives of his family members and other Jews, although he was threatened with execution for this. In the autumn of 1945, when the danger was finally over, George Soros again went to school. But life in constant fear of destruction by the Nazis left its mark on him: the guy longed to go to the West, to leave his native Hungary. He began to implement this plan in 1947, when he was seventeen years old, alone. However, Soros was helped financially by his father, as well as by his aunt, who moved to Florida.

First, George visited Bern, Switzerland, then went to London. There he periodically found ways to earn a living: either he got a job as a waiter in a restaurant, or he picked apples on a farm, or he learned the profession of a house painter. And in 1949 he entered the London School of Economics, graduating in an accelerated format in two years. Soros was formally listed as a student of the school for another year and received a diploma only in 1953.

A diploma in economics did not at all guarantee George a job, and he again had to do odd jobs. However, then the future millionaire already realized that in order to receive large incomes, it is necessary to “join” the investment business. His first job in finance was as an intern at Singer & Friedlander. And in 1956, the novice investor realized that it was time to move to New York.

Business

George began his career in New York by buying securities in one state and selling them in another (this is called international arbitration). When a surcharge on foreign investment was introduced in the United States in 1963, the financier considered this business not profitable enough and closed it.

A few years later, Soros worked as head of research at the Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder brokerage company, and a couple of years later he was appointed manager of the Double Eagle fund, which the company founded. In 1973, Soros left his employers and founded his own foundation called Quantum. Jim Rogers became the junior partner in this business, and the assets of Double Eagle investors were taken as the basis for organizing the fund.

The Quantum Fund specialized in speculation in currencies, securities, and commodities. By the end of the 1980s, George Soros' fortune had already exceeded one hundred million dollars. Over the long term, the Soros and Rogers fund has been successful, but it has also had bad periods. For example, during Black Monday in 1987, when one of the largest stock market crashes in the history of mankind occurred, George ordered to close existing positions and go into cash. Prior to this decision, the fund's annual profit rate reached 60%, but after that, Quantum not only lost profitability, but also went negative: in annual terms, the loss ratio was 10%.

Soon Soros decided to involve the fund's titled asset manager - Stanley Druckenmiller, with the help of which the financier managed to increase his fortune even more. Stanley worked at Quantum until 2000.

An important date for George was September 16, 1992, when the pound sterling collapsed. On this event, the businessman earned over a billion dollars, and Soros is often called one of the culprits of this collapse.

In the late 1990s, the billionaire spoke warmly about Russia and even decided to do business with an entrepreneur. Together with him, he acquired a quarter of the shares of OJSC Svyazinvest, which depreciated twice after the 1998 crisis broke out. Subsequently, George Soros called this acquisition the worst investment.

With age, the financier is less interested in investments, trading on the stock exchange and spends more time on charity. In 2011, he announced that his investment fund was shutting down. Since then, Soros has been engaged in financial transactions only to increase his own capital and increase the welfare of his own family.

Fund

The George Soros hedge fund called Open Society was founded in 1979. The billionaire's funds have been created in several dozen countries. Including his organization (the Soviet-American Foundation "Cultural Initiative") worked in the USSR. It was formed to support culture, science and education, but was closed due to high level corruption.

At the end of the 20th century, the Soros Foundation spent about a hundred million dollars on the Russian project "University Internet Centers", thanks to which high-tech Internet centers appeared in 33 universities. Over the years, the Open Society Institute has provided grants to representatives of the cultural and scientific community however, these payments ceased in 2004.

In 2015, the Soros Foundation was placed on the list of undesirable non-profit organizations for the Russian Federation, which is why now his work in the country is impossible. However, a number of charitable and non-profit foundations created in Russia with the support of this organization are still working today.

State

In 2017, the fortune of George Soros is estimated at $25.2 billion. Some investors believe that he is endowed with an incredible gift of financial foresight, others see the reasons for his success in the use of classified insider information.

The billionaire himself developed the theory of reflexivity stock markets, which explains the impressive growth of his wealth. He wrote books about his views on financial reality: The Alchemy of Finance, The Crisis of World Capitalism, The Soap Bubble of American Supremacy, and others.

Personal life

The first wife of George Soros is Annalise Whitshak, with whom the financier lived for 23 years. His second wife is Susan Weber, whom he married in the same 1983. She was a quarter of a century younger than her new husband and studied art in New York. This family has existed for 22 years.

After his divorce from Susan, the billionaire dated Adriana Ferreira, a popular Brazilian television star. However, Soros still did not marry the Latin American beauty, and after parting, she sued him. The woman demanded that the investor pay her $ 50 million as compensation for harassment, moral damage and beatings.

On the modern photos George Soros, you can see that this man, despite his advanced age, is still ready to lead an active life. The story of his new marriage can serve as clear evidence of this: in 2013, George tied the knot with 42-year-old dietary supplement saleswoman and yoga specialist Tamiko Bolton. The wedding took place at the Karamur Music and Art Center, 500 people were invited to it.

From his first two marriages, the billionaire has five children: sons Alexander, Jonathan, Gregory and Robert, as well as daughter Andrea. Some children followed in the footsteps of their father, a financier: Jonathan first worked in his investment fund, and then founded his own company.

George Soros now

The biography of George Soros has become the ground for gossip and gossip many times. For example, in the fall of 2016, a rumor swept that the billionaire had died. In the same year, Ukraine reported about the secret visit of the financier: Soros allegedly intends to use the country to destabilize Russian economy. Such "facts" exist at the level of speculation, since no serious evidence has been presented in their favor.

Billionaire George Soros is known as a successful investor, philanthropist and writer. He is one of the most famous financial speculators of the 20th century, the founder of several hedge funds and the international charitable organization Open Society.

Short information:

• FULL NAME: George Soros (Schwartz)
• Date of Birth: 08/12/1930
• Education: higher education
• Business Start Date/Age: 1963 / 33 years old
• Type of activity at the start: investor
• Current activity: charity
• Current status:$8 billion (according to Forbes magazine)

George Soros is one of the most famous financiers, speculators and political lobbyists of our time. During his work, he influenced the development of international political processes, founded a business and several funds operating around the world, became famous for successful high-risk investments.

Short biography of George Soros

The American financier of Jewish nationality was born in the capital of Hungary on August 12, 1930. The real name of George Soros (György Soros) is Schwartz. He was brought up in a middle-class family.

His parents gave important life lessons and played an important role in short biography George Soros:

• mother Elizabeth taught her son to be creative, awakened a love for music and drawing. Thanks to his out-of-the-box thinking, George (György in the Hungarian dialect) achieved success: he was able to see, use new opportunities;
• Father Tivadar was a lawyer who went into exile in Siberia during the First World War. When Hungary was under Nazi occupation, he was engaged in forging documents, thus saving members of the Jewish diaspora in Budapest.

Statement. 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 own life if you don't take risks.

It was this idea that became the key to the success story of George Soros as a fantastically successful investor.

A sharp mind and the ability to think outside the box allowed him to learn 4 languages: English, German, French and, of course, Hungarian.

For most of World War II, he hid in basements, attics and other nooks and crannies so that Nazi soldiers would not find him. At that time, Hungary was home to the largest Eastern Europe the Jewish community, and the occupying troops of Germany, especially zealously searched for people of this nationality here.

Through the efforts of his father in 1944, George emigrated to the UK. A year later, after the victory of the USSR and the allies in the war, he returned back, even recovered at school. But even then, the idea matured in him to be based in the West and achieve great success.

In 1947, at the age of 17, Soros left his native Hungary alone. First he stopped in Switzerland, then in the capital of England, London. Here the money that his father gave him ended. The future billionaire had to survive with temporary and casual jobs: as a waiter in a status restaurant, an apple picker on a farm, and even a house painter.

In 1949 he entered the London School of Economics and graduated in two years. At the same time, I got acquainted with the philosophical book "The Open Society and Its Enemies", imbued with ideas and wanted to put them into practice, to make capital on this. Soros was very attracted to the investment business.

In the early 50s, he got a job as an intern at the Singer and Friedlander bank, where he dealt with the shares of various companies, in particular gold mining companies. George made money by buying and reselling securities. He really liked working in the money markets, even despite the fact that at first he could not achieve much success.

In 1956, having earned some money, he went to the United States, determined to succeed in the investment business.

Work in New York

Soros was helped to find a job in the business center of the United States by one of his colleagues from London, who recommended him to the investment firm of F. Mayer. Soon the young businessman took up currency arbitrage.

Having gained experience and made acquaintances, in 1963 he moved to big company"Arnhold & S. Bleichroeder", which is engaged in investing in foreign markets. Considering good experience, acquaintances in Old Europe and knowledge of foreign languages, George was admitted to the state as a priority.

The investor was of the opinion that the economy, despite clear laws, is essentially subjective, as people with their own characteristics stand behind it.

Quote. Facts and opinions do not exist independently of each other. And opinions change facts.

In the 1960s, there was no internet and no such rapid exchange of information and news. The entrepreneur admits that sometimes for subsequent calculations he set the indicators he needed - no one could check whether they were true.

All businessmen try to take into account future events, risks and opportunities. Soros played on this, speculating with valuable information.

Creation of offshore funds

In 1967, a successful investor convinced the management of his company to create several independent funds and provide the opportunity to manage their activities. As a result, by 1969, Soros had two funds under his control: First Eagle, Double Eagle, and $250,000 of his own funds.

Figure 1. George Soros, photo session.
Source: rinf.com

Through his acquaintances, he was able to attract another $6 million, and a little later - funds from wealthy Arabs and Latin Americans. No taxes were levied on the capital raised, as the funds were registered offshore.

George invested skillfully, buying shares in companies in Canada, France, Holland and Japan. In the 1970s, during the structural economic crisis, unlike many other players, the entrepreneur only benefited:

• for 5 years to 1974, the securities of the Double Eagle fund tripled to $ 18 million;
• in 1976-77, the value of the fund increased by almost 100%. For comparison, the Dow Jones index fell by 13% at that time.

In 1979, the fund changed its name from Double Eagle to Quantum. Then he was able to earn $ 100 million on the fall of the British pound sterling. English state. bonds were in great demand, Soros bought them for $1 billion, and then unexpectedly sold them. And very soon the pound fell seriously.

By the early 1980s, looking back over 10 years, the value of the Quantum (Double Eagle) hedge fund had grown by almost 103%. This brought the investor not only universal respect and recognition, but also solid wealth - at the end of 1980, his fortune was estimated at $ 100 million.

In 1981, for the first time, the unprecedented happened - the fund's securities fell by almost 23%, and the year ended without a profit. This led to the fact that a third of the investors withdrew their money from Quantum. However, the very next year, the shares rose by 57%.

The businessman, sensitive to change, realized that the company needed change. To replace him, he found a talented manager from Minneapolis, Jim Marquez, who began work in 1983. According to its results, the fund's assets in value increased by 24.9% to $385.5 million.

From now on, Soros managed only half of all investments. This made it possible to do other things, foreign trips around the world.

White and black stripe

Figure 2. George Soros at the WEF.
Source: www.qoshe.com

Quantum continued to develop, and 1985 was a time of victory for him and his founder.

1. The growth in the value of the fund amounted to 122.2%, in monetary terms - from $449 million to $1 billion.
2. Soros earned a total of $93.5 million.

Interesting fact ! Particularly noteworthy is the story of the Japanese yen. On September 22, 1985, the businessman bought several million Japanese government bonds. But the very next day, the dollar fell 4.3% against the yen, which George took advantage of, earning $40 million overnight.

For the next currency speculation, a talented investor was called "the man who brought down the Bank of England."

In 1992, Soros opened a position on the British pound sterling for more than $ 10 billion on the stock exchange. A bold step and further actions brought him a fantastic profit - $ 1.1 billion. This led to a chain of events: intervention by the British Central Bank, the withdrawal of the British pound from the European mechanism exchange rates(ERM), a significant drop in its rate.

All this made the entrepreneur one of the richest people in the world, richer than some states. In 1993, he had more capital than the 42 countries that are members of the UN.

The losing streak began in 1997. In cooperation with Vladimir Potanin, he invested in Russia, bought shares in one of the companies. As a result of a series of operations, the 1998 crisis, Soros lost most of his investments, was forced to sell an unprofitable investment, but did it unsuccessfully. If the businessman waited a little, he could sell the asset for twice the price, which could recoup the costs.

In 1999, his core fund, Quantum, lost $1 billion in a bad investment. Other funds also lost significant funds: in total, they amounted to $ 500 million. Business circles began to say that George had lost his flair, lost the tail of luck out of his hands. Businessmen began to urgently withdraw their capital from Soros organizations.

But the entrepreneur did not want to give up: he attracted new investors, businessmen saw that some assets of the funds continued to grow. At the turn of the millennium, George invested heavily in the internet.

At first, things went well: the total value of Quantum exceeded $10 billion, but in the early 2000s, the so-called “dot-com crisis” occurred. The fund's forecasters did not take into account a number of processes that caused the collapse of the NASDAQ index. As a result, losses exceeded $5 billion.

Soros realized that "the time for big deals" was over, and closed his largest foundation, deciding to turn to charitable work, writing books.

Controversial philanthropist and philosopher

Back in 1979, the entrepreneur created the first charitable foundation "Open Society", which is actively working to this day; annual funding from the creator is about $ 300 million. The organization has more than 30 representative offices in different countries. The Fund finances a number of projects in the field of education, medicine, civil society and etc.

Interesting fact! In Russia, the Open Society appeared in 1995, actively issued grants for 8 years, in 2015 it was banned and recognized as an undesirable organization.

Speaking about activities in the Russian Federation, the following results can be distinguished:

• educational institutions gifted computer technology;
• $100 million allocated for support Russian science and scientists;
• purchased and provided scientific equipment, reagents;
• funded trips to scientific conferences;
• in 1996-2001, within the framework of the program "University Internet Centers", 33 Internet centers were opened, etc.

A series of educational institutions, foundations for the study of economics, sociology, culture, support for publishing, development information technologies etc.

Despite outwardly plausible goals and objectives, many questions arose about the Soros Foundation. There are cases when real and potential scientists were taken abroad and began to work for the interests of Western countries(so-called "brain drain").

In particular, in Russia, the philanthropist is accused that charity is a guise under which scientific developments are collected, society is divided, false propaganda and disinformation are spread.

Interesting fact! Russian and foreign publics are well aware of the negative attitude of George Soros towards Russia. He repeatedly called her "enemy number 1."

After the collapse of the USSR, the entrepreneur took up the creation and distribution of textbooks for lower and higher education in Russia. The quality of these publications was very low, information was presented in them in such a way as to belittle the contribution and importance of Russian culture and statehood, information was disseminated that did not correspond to reality.

According to experts and historians, the purpose of such actions was to create a "guilt complex" in Russian people, destructive impact on the collective conscious and unconscious.

The activity of the Soros Foundation is called into question by many countries. According to breaking news:

• in the homeland of the financier, in Hungary, the work of his charitable organization creates serious problems;
• in Turkey, a large-scale operation is being carried out against all institutions of the fund;
• Austria gave 28 days to close the office.

George Soros is criticized by many politicians. One of the leaders of Croatia believes that the businessman supports traitors, promotes dangerous ideas in society. The President of Romania accused the investor of subversive, malicious activities.

It is believed that the "Open Society" took a direct part in organizing revolutions in Georgia, countries Central Asia, in Ukraine and in other states. The foundation's institutions supported Hillary Clinton extensively during the last US presidential election in 2016.

Soros is one of the only ones who profited well from the Brexit procedure - the UK's withdrawal from the European Union.

You can learn more about what “Brexit” is in the article: “Brexit: what is it, analysis of results and consequences”.

The entrepreneur is one of the richest people in the world. In 2009, his fortune was estimated at $ 11 billion, in 2012 - already $ 19 billion. Now, according to Forbes magazine, he has $ 8 billion, although more recently his fortune was $ 23 billion. Soros transferred a little more than $ 17 billion to the activities of his fund " Open Society".

The 87-year-old businessman is in his third marriage, he has 5 children in total.

George Soros (Soros) real name (Gyorgy Shorosh) was born in Budapest on August 12, 1930 in a Jewish family of average income. George's father was a lawyer and publisher (tried to publish a magazine in Esperanto). In 1914, he volunteered for the front, was captured by the Russians and was exiled to Siberia, from where he fled back to his native Budapest. During the time of repression, thanks to false documents made by his father, the Soros family escaped persecution by the Nazis and in 1947 safely emigrated to the UK. At this time, Soros was already 17 years old. Here Soros entered London School of Economics and successfully graduated three years later. He was lectured by the Austrian philosopher Karl Popper, who later became his mentor.

George's life goal was Karl Popper's idea of ​​creating a so-called open society on earth. In this regard, he organized numerous charitable organizations around the world.

Career

In England, George Soros found work in a haberdashery factory. The position was called assistant manager, but in fact he worked as a salesman. Then George turned into a traveling salesman, driving around in a cheap Ford and selling goods to various merchants in the seaside resorts of Wales. Simultaneously with the work of a traveling salesman, Soros tried to get a job in all the merchant banks in London. But everywhere he was refused due to his nationality and the lack of a protégé. Only in 1953 did he get a job in the company "Singer and Friedlander", from his compatriot Hungarian. Work and at the same time an internship took place in the arbitration department, which was located next to the stock exchange. Its leader traded shares of gold mining companies. But boring work did not inspire George Soros, and three years later he found a way to move to America.

IN THE USA in 1956 he arrived at the invitation of the father of his London friend, a certain Mayer, who had his own small brokerage firm on Wall Street. A career in the United States began with international arbitration, that is, buying securities in one country and selling them in another. After the Suet crisis, this type of business did not go as well as Soros wanted and he created a new method of trading, calling it internal arbitrage (selling separately combined securities of stocks, bonds and warrants before they could be officially separated from each other). 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.

Soros returned to philosophy. From 1963 to 1966, he tries 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 . At this, the career of the philosopher was terminated and in 1966 he returned to business.

From the company's capital of 100 thousand dollars, Soros created investment fund with a capital of 4 million dollars. Having received significant profits for three years of work, in 1969 Soros became the head and co-owner of a fund called Double Eagle and later developed into the famous Quantum Group. The fund carried out speculative operations with securities that brought him millions of dollars in profit. By mid-1990, Quantum's capital was $10 billion. To date, every dollar invested in this fund has turned into 5.5 thousand US dollars. A significant day on September 15, 1992, when, thanks to the operations undertaken by Soros associated with a sharp fall in the British pound, his fortune increased by another 1 billion dollars. After that day, Soros became known as "The Man Who Broke the Bank of England."

In 1997, George Soros launched a successful attack against the national currencies of a number of countries in the Asia-Pacific region - Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines, which ended in deep economic crisis these countries, thrown back in their development by 10-15 years ago. China became its next target, but local experts managed to prevent the attack.

Losses

But since 1997, Soros has had a "black streak". Almost all investments brought huge losses . In 1997, together with Potanin, he created Mustcom offshore, which paid $1.875 billion for a 25% stake in Svyazinvest, but after the 1998 crisis, the share price fell by more than half. Soros angrily called this purchase "the worst investment of money in my life." After much trying, in 2004 he sold Svyazinvest shares for $625 million to Access Industries, headed by Leonard Blavatnik, who is also a shareholder in TNK-BP. At the end of 2006, Blavatnik sold a blocking stake for $1.3 billion to Comstar-UTS, part of AFK Sistema.

In 2005, Soros sold to the Italian banking group Intesa his stake in KMB Bank (Small Business Loan Bank), which has more than 50 branches in all major cities Russia and serves more than 35 thousand customers. In 1999, the Soros investment fund (not to be confused with a charitable one) acquired a 47 percent stake in the bank, which was then called the Russian Project Finance Bank. At that time, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) held a controlling stake. At the time of the current deal, the EBRD and Soros each had about 37 percent of the bank's shares, with another 26 percent in the hands of German and Dutch investors.

All shareholders, except for the EBRD, have completely sold their shares in KMB. The total amount of the deal is estimated at $90 million. This transaction is notable because, according to the Kommersant newspaper, the stake in this bank was Soros' last financial asset in Russia. Deciding to retire, he came to grips with the funding programs for science and the arts.

Strategy: how George Soros got rich

George Soros' fortune is estimated at $7.2 billion. According to Business Week magazine, he has donated more than $5 billion to charitable causes throughout his life, with one billion of that five coming from Russia. All of Soros' main speculations in the world financial markets were carried out through his secret offshore company Quantum Fund NV, registered on the Caribbean island of Curacao, owned by the Netherlands. It is the largest fund within the Soros-controlled Quantum Group of Funds.

George Soros made his fortune playing games on downgrade ("bearish" tactics), during which he used his "reflexivity theory of stock markets". According to this theory, decisions about buying and selling securities are made on the basis of price expectations in the future, and since expectations are a psychological category, they can be the object of information impact. An attack on the currency of any country consists of successive information strikes through the media and analytical publications, combined with the real actions of currency speculators, shaking the financial market.

There are two main points of view regarding the financial success of Soros. According to the first point of view, Soros owes his successes to the gift of financial foresight. Another says that in making important decisions, George Soros uses insider information provided by high-ranking officials from the political, financial and intelligence circles of the world's largest countries [source?]. Moreover, it is assumed that Soros is a hired manager, carrying out financial projects groups of powerful international financiers who prefer to keep a low profile and are based mainly in the UK, Switzerland and the USA.

The core of this group is believed to be the famous Rothschild family, but in addition to the Rothschilds, the organization represented by Soros includes the infamous American billionaire Mark Rich, Shaul Eisenberg, Rafi Eitan and others.

In 2002, a Parisian court even found George Soros guilty of obtaining confidential information for profit and sentenced him to a fine of 2.2 million euros. According to the court, thanks to this information, the millionaire earned about $ 2 million on the shares of the French bank Societe Generale.

Charity

George Soros is known not only as a financier, but also as philanthropist and social thinker, author of a number of books and articles, for which the fundamental value and central idea is the formation of an open society in the post-communist world. In 1990, on the initiative of Soros, the Central European University was founded in Budapest, Prague and Warsaw. And he is also an honorary doctor of the New School for Social Research (New York), Oxford and Yale Universities. In addition to numerous articles George Soros wrote books"Alchemy of Finance" (1987), "Discovering the Soviet System" (1990), "Supporting Democracy" (1991).

The Open Society Fund was the start of Soros' philanthropic career. Now he has established charitable foundations in more than 25 countries. Back in 1988, Soros organized the Cultural Initiative Foundation in the USSR to support science, culture, and education. But the "Cultural Initiative" fund was closed, as the money was not used for its intended purpose, but was used for personal purposes by certain individuals. In 1995, the decision was made to start over in Russia, and a new Open Society Foundation was organized. George Soros is the first in Russia since 1996. finances the project "Internet University Centers". The goal of the project was to open and maintain for five years the functioning of centers for open access to the global information computer network Internet at 32 Russian universities. This project was financed together with the government of the Russian Federation. Soros' contribution was $100 million, and the contribution Russian government 30 million. It is believed that this is the only obligation that the government has fulfilled in full and on time. George Soros is called nothing less than a living legend of the financial market or a financial genius. Back in 1994, investments in a network of charitable foundations and other institutions reached $300 million, in 1995 and 1996 - $350 million each.