Who is George Soros? Billionaire George Soros: how he achieved success and became richer than some countries George Soros biography and success story

George Soros (Soros) real name (Gyorgy Shoros) was born in Budapest on August 12, 1930 into a middle-class Jewish family. George's father was a lawyer and publisher (he 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 times of repression, thanks to false documents prepared 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 in three years. 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. George then became a traveling salesman, driving around in a cheap Ford and selling goods to various merchants in the seaside resorts of Wales. At the same time as working as a traveling salesman, Soros tried to get a job in all the trading banks in London. But everywhere he was refused due to his nationality and the lack of a protégé. It was only in 1953 that he received a position at Singer and Friedlander from his fellow Hungarian. The work and at the same time the internship took place in the arbitration department, which was located next to the stock exchange. Its leader traded shares of gold mining companies. But the 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. His career in the United States began with international arbitrage, 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). Before Kennedy introduced an additional tax on foreign investment, this type of activity brought in good income. After this, Soros' business was destroyed overnight.

Soros returned to philosophy. From 1963 to 1966, he tried to rewrite the dissertation on which he began working 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, because he believed that he was simply conveying the thoughts of his great teacher . This ended the philosopher's career 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. Having received significant profits over three years of work, in 1969 Soros became the director and co-owner of a fund called Double Eagle, which later grew into the famous Quantum Group. The fund carried out speculative transactions with securities, which brought him millions of dollars in profit. By mid-1990, Quantum's capital was $10 billion. Today, every dollar invested in this fund has turned into 5.5 thousand US dollars. A significant day was September 15, 1992, when, thanks to the operations undertaken by Soros related to the sharp fall of the British pound, his fortune increased by another $1 billion. After this day, Soros began to be called “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 a deep economic crisis in these countries, set back in their development 10-15 years ago. The next target of its influence was China, but local specialists managed to prevent the attack.

Losses

But Since 1997, Soros has had a “dark streak”. Almost all investments brought huge losses . In 1997, he and Potanin created the offshore Mustcom, which paid $1.875 billion for a 25% stake in Svyazinvest OJSC, but after the 1998 crisis, the share price fell by more than half. Soros angrily called this purchase “the worst investment of his entire life.” After many attempts, in 2004 he sold the shares of Svyazinvest OJSC for $625 million to Access Industries, headed by Leonard Blavatnik, who was also a shareholder of 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 his stake in KMB Bank (Small Business Lending Bank) to the Italian banking group Intesa, which has more than 50 branches throughout major cities Russia and serves more than 35 thousand clients. In 1999, Soros's investment fund (not to be confused with a charity) acquired 47 percent of the bank's shares, which was then called Russian bank project financing. At that time, the controlling stake belonged to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). At the time of the current deal, the EBRD and Soros each had approximately 37 percent of the bank's shares, with another 26 percent in the hands of German and Dutch investors.

All shareholders, except the EBRD, completely sold their shares in KMB. The total amount of the transaction is estimated at $90 million. This transaction is notable because, according to the Kommersant newspaper, the stake in this bank was Soros's last financial asset in Russia. Deciding to retire, he became closely involved in programs for financing science and art.

Strategy: how George Soros got rich

George Soros's net worth is estimated at $7.2 billion. Business Week magazine estimates that he donated more than $5 billion to charities throughout his life, with one billion of those five billion going to Russia. All of Soros's major speculations in global financial markets were carried out through his secret offshore company Quantum Fund NV, registered in the Netherlands. Caribbean island Curacao. This is the largest fund within the Soros-controlled Quantum Group of Funds.

George Soros made his fortune through gaming downgrade (“bearish” tactics), during which he used his “theory of stock market reflexivity.” According to this theory, decisions on purchases and sales of securities are made based on expectations of prices in the future, and since expectations are a psychological category, they can be the object of informational influence. An attack on the currency of a country consists of successive information attacks through the media and analytical publications, combined with the real actions of currency speculators that undermine the financial market.

There are two main points of view regarding Soros' financial success. According to the first point of view, Soros owes his successes to the gift of financial foresight. Another says that in acceptance important decisions George Soros uses insider information provided by senior political, financial and intelligence officials largest countries world[source?]. Moreover, it is assumed that Soros is a hired manager carrying out financial projects of a group 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 notorious American billionaire Marc Rich, Shaul Eisenberg, Rafi Eitan and others.

In 2002, a Paris 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 from shares of the French bank Societe Generale

Charity

George Soros is known not only as a financier, but also as a philanthropist and social thinker, author of a number of books and articles, for whom 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. He is also an honorary doctor. New School Social Research (New York), Oxford and Yale Universities. In addition to numerous articles by George Soros wrote books"The Alchemy of Finance" (1987), "Discovering the Soviet System" (1990), "Maintaining Democracy" (1991).

The Open Society Fund marked the beginning of Soros's charitable career. Now he has created charitable foundations in more than 25 countries. Back in 1988, in the USSR, Soros organized the Cultural Initiative Foundation in support of science, culture, and education. But the Cultural Initiative fund was closed because the money was not used for its intended purpose, but was used for the personal purposes of certain individuals. In 1995, the decision was made to start over in Russia, and a new Open Society Foundation was established. George Soros is the first in Russia since 1996. finances the project "University Internet Centers". The goal of the project was to open and maintain for five years the functioning of centers in 32 Russian universities open access to global information computer network Internet. This project was financed jointly with the Russian government. Soros' contribution amounted to $100 million, and Russian government 30 million. This is believed to be the only commitment 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 the network of charitable foundations and other institutions reached $300 million, in 1995 and 1996 - $350 million each.

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

George Soros

For many years, George Soros repeated a phrase that was remembered - “first of all, strive to survive, and only then make money.” George Soros did not accept the rules written by others, but wrote his own.

George Soros' childhood

George Soros was born on August 12, 1930 in Budapest. In a Jewish family with average income. His father was a lawyer and was involved in publishing. In 1947, fleeing Nazi repression, the Soros family emigrated to the UK using forged documents prepared by their father. Then Soros turned 17 years old. Soros entered and successfully graduated from the London School of Economics.

George Soros got his first job

George Soros took a job in England at a haberdashery factory. Although the job title was “assistant manager,” it was actually a sales job. Later, George became a traveling salesman: he drove a wretched Ford along the coast of Wales, offering goods to merchants. While still hoping to get a job at a bank, he was a waiter in a restaurant, picked apples, and even worked as a porter at the station. Already at that time, he scrupulously kept accounting of his finances. “When I started, my weekly budget was £4, then I cut my expenses to less than £4, I kept a diary of my income and expenses,” the now billionaire recalls, smiling.

Relocation of George Soros to the USA

In search of new options, George Soros immigrates to the United States in 1956. This is where the personal growth of George Soros began. First aid was provided by a father's friend from London. He got George to work at a brokerage firm, where the future billionaire mastered securities trading - international arbitration. Soros invented his own method of trading - internal arbitrage. The idea was to sell separately combined securities of stocks, bonds and warrants before they could be officially separated from each other.

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

While working at Arnhold & S. Bleichroeder, George Soros founded an offshore investment fund, First Eagle. Later, in 1969, he established another hedge fund, 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 amounted to 3365% per year. Mainly this fund provided George Soros with a huge fortune.

In 1997, George Soros failed after acquiring a 25% stake in the Russian company Svyazinvest. This event marked the beginning of a “dark period” when almost all investments brought losses. Soros decided to leave the business and engage in 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, when making decisions about buying and selling securities, proceed from the expected 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 a risk by conducting transactions using loans, although the market usually prefers safer methods. But he has already reached the pinnacle of his personal growth; he especially loves the excitement of the stock exchange 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, he has more influence and capital than some states. George Soros managed to realize 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 world in many ways. Neither journalists nor biographers can come to a common opinion: what is the secret of George Soros’ success and what motives does he pursue?

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

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 activity 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 - 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 of funds and “move” the 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 growth has become an example to follow for tens of thousands of aspiring financiers 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 in 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, ranging from an apple picker to a dishwasher and a waiter in London pubs.

Youth

After graduation economic college, George began searching of this work according to the specialty received, but everything that you were lucky enough to find young specialist- this is the position of an assistant manager in 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 arbitration, 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 his ascent up the career ladder was 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’ life for the better. By inventing a new strategy, George demonstrated his potential to his management and non-standard way 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 that 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. 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. peace 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 price movements. And based on the fact that almost all human beliefs, this is more often 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 frauds on the securities market, 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 remove the pound sterling itself from the list of exchange currencies, since its collapse could drag down the currency of the European Union.

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’s actions do not go beyond established standards and differ from other speculations only in their scale.

That is why the story described above is largely 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 rankings richest people popular publication Forbes.

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 total mass 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.

American financier George Soros, speaking on June 20 in London at an event of the Open Russia movement Mikhail Khodorkovsky,

According to Soros, the current situation is reminiscent of the dawn of the European Union during the collapse of the USSR. The financier noted that during his speech he felt “more than ever” that the fate of the EU depends on the future of Ukraine.

AiF.ru talks about what is known about the American financier George Soros.

Dossier

George Soros (real name Schwartz) was born on August 12, 1930 in Budapest (Hungary) into a middle-income Jewish family. His father, Tivadar Schwartz, was a lawyer, a prominent figure in the city's Jewish community, an Esperanto specialist and an Esperantist writer. Older brother - engineer, entrepreneur and philanthropist Paul Soros (1926-2013).

In 1947, Soros moved to England, where he entered the London School of Economics and political sciences and successfully graduated in three years. He was lectured by an Austrian philosopher Karl Popper, who had a great influence on him, whose ideological follower he became.

In England, he found work in a haberdashery factory, and then became a traveling salesman, but did not give up his search for work in a bank. In 1953 he received a position at Singer and Friedlander. The work and at the same time the internship took place in the arbitration department, which was located next to the stock exchange.

Soros's career as a financier dates back to 1956. He arrived in New York at the invitation of the father of his London friend, a certain Mayer, who had his own small brokerage firm on Wall Street.

His career in the United States began with international arbitrage, that is, buying securities in one country and selling them in another. Soros 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.

In 1963 Kennedy introduced an additional tax on foreign investment, and Soros closed his business. By 1967, he was head of research at Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder, a well-known brokerage firm specializing in European stock markets.

In 1969, Soros became manager of the Double Eagle fund, founded by Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder. In 1973, he left Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder and, together with Jim Rogers, based on the assets of investors in the Double Eagle fund, founded a fund that later became known as Quantum (a term from the field quantum mechanics). Soros was the senior partner, Rogers was the junior until he retired in 1980. The fund carried out speculative operations with securities, currencies, and commodities and achieved great success, during collaboration from 1970 to 1980, Soros and Rogers never suffered a loss; by the end of 1980, Soros's personal fortune was estimated at $100 million; in June 1981, Institutional Investor magazine named Soros the world's greatest fund manager.

Despite the fund's success over the long term, it had unsuccessful years - if in 1980 the profit was 100%, then the next year the fund lost 23%. Soros' decision on Black Monday in 1987 to close all positions and go into cash was one of the biggest failures of his career. If before “Black Monday” the annual profitability of Quantum was 60%, then a week later the fund became unprofitable, with losses of 10% in annual terms.

In 1988, Soros invited him to work for his foundation. Stanley Druckenmiller who played important role in subsequent investment decisions until 2000, when he left Quantum. It is believed that on the sharp fall of the English pound against the German mark on September 16, 1992, Soros made money in a day more than a billion dollars. Soros began calling this day, known as “Black Wednesday,” “White Wednesday,” and he himself is celebrated as “the man who broke the Bank of England.”

In charity

Gradually, Soros is moving away from financial speculation and declaring charitable activities, including in the field of education and scientific research. Makes statements about the necessity and usefulness of restrictions in the financial sector, including to reduce the investment opportunities of large financial institutions.

Now he has created charitable foundations in more than 25 countries. In September 1987, on his initiative, the Soviet-American Cultural Initiative Foundation was created in the USSR in support of science, culture and education, but the foundation was later closed.

In 1995, it was decided to organize a new Open Society Foundation in Russia. From 1996 to 2001, the Soros Foundation invested about $100 million in the University Internet Centers project, as a result of which 33 Internet centers appeared in Russia.

In 1995-2001, according to the International Soros Education Program in the field of exact sciences(ISSEP) published the monthly Soros Educational Journal (SOJ). Publications of SOZh had a natural science direction; target group: high school students. The magazine was distributed free of charge to schools (more than 30 thousand copies), municipal and university libraries (3.5 thousand copies).

At the end of 2003, Soros officially closed down financial support its charitable activities in Russia, and in 2004 the Open Society Institute stopped issuing grants. But the structures created with the assistance of the Soros Foundation now operate without his direct participation: Moscow graduate School social and economic sciences (MSHSSEN, created in 1995 with a grant from the Soros Foundation, Culture and Art Foundation Institute "PRO ARTE", International charitable foundation named after D. S. Likhachev, a non-profit fund for the support of book publishing, education and new information technologies"Pushkin Library".

State

As of November 2009, George Soros's fortune was estimated at 11 billion dollars, as of September 2012 - 19 billion. Business Week magazine estimates that he donated more than $5 billion to charities throughout his life, with one billion of those five billion going to Russia.

Family

In September 2013, he married for the third time, his chosen one was 42-year-old Tamiko Bolton, they met five years ago and announced their engagement in August.

Political activism and lobbying

Crisis in Ukraine

At the beginning of January 2015, Soros called for urgent assistance to Ukraine. financial assistance in the amount of 20 billion euros to support the “belligerent side”.

November 12, 2015 President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko awarded George Soros the Order of Freedom. Poroshenko noted the significant role international fund“Revival”, founded by Soros, in the development of the Ukrainian state and the establishment of democracy. In addition, Poroshenko expressed gratitude for the efforts of Soros and his long-term comprehensive plan to support Ukraine, as well as for professional advice on public finance issues.

Essays

Soros J. Soros about Soros. - M.: Infra-M, 1996. - 336 p. — ISBN 5-86225-305-X.

Soros J. Alchemy of Finance. - M.: Infra-M, 2001. - 208 p. — ISBN 5-86225-166-9.

Soros George. The bubble of American superiority. Where should American power be directed? / translated from English - M.: Alpina Business Books, 2004, 192 pp., ISBN 5-9614-0042-5 (Russian), ISBN 1-58648-217-3 (English), dash. 10000 copies

Soros J. Open Society. Reforming global capitalism. Per. from English - M.: Non-profit foundation “Support of culture, education and new information technologies”, 2001. - 458 pp., ISBN 5-94072-001-3, ref. 10000 copies

Soros J. On globalization. - M.: Eksmo, 2004. - 224 p. — ISBN 5-699-07924-6.

We are talking about the new Dodd-Frank Act, known by the name of its developers - Congressmen Chris Dodd and Barney Frank, which imposes a number of significant restrictions on hedge funds: until March 2012, all hedge funds operating in the country must register with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and hedge funds are required to disclose all information about their investors, assets, investment policies, and possible conflicts of interest.

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

Let's meet? George Soros: biography of the man who “brought down the Bank of England.”

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

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

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

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

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

Starting a financial career

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

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

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

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

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

Quantum's history resembles a cardiogram with sharp ups and downs. But overall, the fund's performance is impressive. Quantum investors earned about $32 billion on investments in the fund. By the way, this is a confident first place in profit in the entire history of hedge funds.

The Legend of Black Wednesday

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

How did Soros and his friend collapse the pound? In the early 90s, both of them bought government bonds and British currency a little at a time. In the autumn of 1992, the pound fell steadily throughout the week. Friends and speculators decided to make money on this. To the fund's money, Soros added a personal capital of 5 billion pounds. And put a short position on total amount more than 10 billion pounds.

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

With his speculation, George forced the Bank of England to make a large foreign exchange injection from government reserves. And he removed the pound from the mechanism for regulating European currencies.

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

In 1997, Soros decided to repeat the “British crash” in South Asia by attacking the currencies of Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore. Financial panic in Asian markets provoked a deep economic crisis. The Prime Minister of Malaysia directly accused Soros of destabilizing the country. As a result of the attack, the Malaysian economy was thrown back 15 years and has struggled to recover from the blow.

For my financial career George Soros made a lot of dubious deals. For example, I purchased MGM shares with a limit of $1.35 million. Until a certain price was reached, the deal was closed automatically. Soros bought shares 60 days before carnage at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas.

Catastrophic mistakes of the speculator

George Soros' biggest financial failure involves Russia. In 1997, together with Russian oligarch Potanin creates the offshore Mustcom and through it buys 25% of the shares of the Svyazinvest company.

And in 1998, a default broke out in Russia. Prices for everything fell three times. The legendary speculator lost $1.25 billion on the purchase and sale of Svyazinvest.

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

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

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

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

P.S. My favorite quote from George Soros: “Success requires leisure—time that is entirely yours.”