George Soros

* George Soros has made his mark as an enormously successful speculator, wise enough to largely withdraw when still way ahead of the game. (Wikipedia, attr to Paul Volcker).
* Soros was thirteen years old in March 1944 when Nazi Germany took military control over Hungary.[15] Soros worked for the Jewish Council,[8] which had been established during the Nazi occupation of Hungary to forcibly carry out Nazi and Hungarian government anti-Jewish measures
* To avoid his son's being apprehended by the Nazis, Soros's father paid a Ministry of Agriculture employee to have Soros spend the summer of 1944 living with him and posing as the godson. Young Soros had to hide his Jewishness even as the official was overseeing the confiscation of Jewish property.
* In 1945, Soros survived the battle of Budapest in which Soviet and German forces fought house-to-house through the city. Soros first traded currencies and jewelry during the Hungarian hyperinflation of 1945–1946. Soros emigrated to England in 1947 and graduated from the London School of Economics in 1952. While a student of the philosopher Karl Popper, Soros worked as a railway porter and as a waiter
* On Black Wednesday (September 16, 1992), Soros's fund sold short more than $10 billion worth of pounds sterling[citation needed], profiting from the Bank of England's reluctance to either raise its interest rates to levels comparable to those of other European Exchange Rate Mechanism countries or to float its currency. Finally, the Bank of England withdrew the currency from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, devaluing the pound sterling, and Soros earned an estimated US$ 1.1 billion in the process. He was dubbed "the man who broke the Bank of England." In 1997, the UK Treasury estimated the cost of Black Wednesday at £3.4 billion. The Times of Monday, October 26, 1992, quoted Soros as saying: "Our total position by Black Wednesday had to be worth almost $10 billion. We planned to sell more than that. In fact, when Norman Lamont said just before the devaluation that he would borrow nearly $15 billion to defend sterling, we were amused because that was about how much we wanted to sell." Stanley Druckenmiller, who traded under Soros, originally saw the weakness in the pound. "Soros' contribution was pushing him to take a gigantic position." - Wikipedia
* George Soros was a master at translating broad-brush economic trends into highly leveraged, killer plays in bonds and currencies. As an investor, Soros was a short-term speculator, making huge bets on the directions of financial markets. He believed that financial markets can best be described as chaotic. The prices of securities and currencies depend on human beings, or the traders - both professional and non-professional - who buy and sell these assets. These persons often act out based on emotion, rather than logical considerations. He also believed that market participants influenced one another and moved in herds. He said that most of the time he moved with the herd, but always watched for an opportunity to get out in front and "make a killing." How could he tell when the time was right? Soros has said that he would have an instinctive physical reaction about when to buy and sell, making is strategy a difficult model to emulate. ( link )
* From my reading, it appears that there is no major methodology that is the secret to Soros' trading success, but it looks like more like accepting quickly when he is wrong and getting out damn fast...naturally, he is also right many times...so, on the average, when he is right he makes a lot of money but when he is wrong, because of his open mindedness to accepting his mistake he cuts his losses to bare minimums...at least this is what I understood

Highlights

* George Soros has made his mark as an enormously successful speculator, wise enough to largely withdraw when still way ahead of the game. (Wikipedia, attr to Paul Volcker).
* On Black Wednesday (September 16, 1992), Soros's fund sold short more than $10 billion worth of pounds sterling[citation needed], profiting from the Bank of England's reluctance to either raise its interest rates to levels comparable to those of other European Exchange Rate Mechanism countries or to float its currency.
* George Soros was a master at translating broad-brush economic trends into highly leveraged, killer plays in bonds and currencies. As an investor, Soros was a short-term speculator, making huge bets on the directions of financial markets.
He said that most of the time he moved with the herd, but always watched for an opportunity to get out in front and "make a killing."
* From my reading, it appears that there is no major methodology that is the secret to Soros' trading success, but it looks like more like accepting quickly when he is wrong and getting out damn fast...

==QUICK TO ACCEPT MISTAKES AND TAKE ACTION==
==ABILITY TO FORECAST SHORT TERM TRENDS AND MOVING QUICKLY==
==TRANSLATING BROAD ECONOMIC TRENDS INTO HIGHLY LEVERAGED, KILLER PLAYS==