THE BOTTOM LINE
What makes a great investor?
A big dose of luck, and a distinctly odd character
ONE day in 1992, American investor Stanley Druckenmiller marched into his boss’ office, saying: “George, I’m going to sell US$5.5 billion worth of British pounds tonight and buy deutschemarks.”
George was Hungarian-American investor and philanthropist George Soros and Druckenmiller, his protege, was running his Quantum hedge fund.
The idea was that the Bank of England (BOE) was trying to sustain an unsustainable exchange-rate peg which speculative pressure could break, forcing the depreciation of the pound and netting Quantum a huge profit.
