Couple of things: Trader =/= investor, so OP might actually meant trader. Doesn't matter what the candidate does in his life or what his political views are, the question was about his achievement as an investor. So stop bitching about Soros or Livermore... I think we can look at it 2 ways, from the investors' POV (how much returns they got and how safely it was achieved for how long) and from the trader's POV. Personally, I think the trader's POV should be how fast they achieved wealth and not necessarily how long they were producing great returns. I would rather be a billionaire by 40 and enjoy the rest of my life the way I want, than working into my 80s... Here is one guy: "Sanley Freeman Druckenmiller (born June 14, 1953) is an American hedge fund manager, he is the former Chairman and President of Duquesne Capital, which he founded in 1981. He closed the fund in August 2010 because he felt unable to deliver high returns to his clients. At the time of closing, Duquesne Capital had over $12 billion in assets. From 1988 to 2000, he managed money for George Soros as the lead portfolio manager for Quantum Fund. He has an estimated net worth of $2.5 billion as of September 2011, ranked by Forbes as the 149th richest man in America. He is reported to have made $260 million in 2008."
Here is a guy not very many think of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Baruch "Baruch became a broker and then a partner in A.A. Housman & Company. With his earnings and commissions, he bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange for $18,000 ($434,000 in today's dollars). There he amassed a fortune before the age of 30 via speculation in the sugar market. By 1903 Baruch had his own brokerage firm and gained the reputation of "The Lone Wolf of Wall Street" because of his refusal to join any financial house. By 1910, he had become one of Wall Street's best-known financiers." So he is wealthy by age 30 and by age 40 he is the big shit on Wall Street. He then managed to live up to 95 and being the go to guy of several presidents... It doesn't get any better than that...
yes, two things I got from the biography, 1. amateurs should not invest in the stock market. 2. "I made all my money betting on America when others doubted it would ever be great." During WWII, he devoted 100% of his time to procuring various natural resources that were in short supply and hard to find worldwide for the war effort.
Put another way, he was a was a war profiteer. Or as others have put less kindly... "...20th century war profiteer who perfected modern debt-slaver warfare-state plutocracy."
no, not exactly, he worked directly for Roosevelt, the money came from US govt out of the war budget. No profit or even pay went to him. He was a civilian civil servant
For investing and connecting it to being great, I would say outsiders (those looking in) would respect most the families who have done well. For me, it is the pre revolutionary settlers who had a dairy farm just north of Wall Street. They have kept the farm. It was a family custom to roll out the plats during the holidays (not the old ones but the ones in the library that were used for discussions.) I am adding a teasure hunt so you can find out the family and the name of the fund the fortune is now located within. Go to Wall Street. Bring you cell Phone. Take pictures of plaques on building walls to get the plat of the original dairy farm. Go far enough north until you come to where the Mayor lives. Take a snap shot of the street ID named. Notice that you went past the UN property. It was given away so don't include it. Now go ove to the Met. Go inside. Go the the American History. Take a snap shot of the furniture and who it is loaned to. Add in the furniture value (its the dairy farm furniture). The IRS tried to cancel the ownership because it was giving money away only to the family as a NFP (saved paying taxes up till then). The counter was to give money to employees and their cohorts. The IRS folded its hand. The land you see leased has leases that end every 99 years. So the buildings you photographed can be torn down every once in a while and the land released. The current dairy farm that is operating is in upper NY state (Glensfoot Farm) Also so there were other things that happened. Corporations were built and banks happened and markets were invented. The policy was always to participate using income from leases. So far details are not required to be made public. Only some money has to be given away each year. Most is provided to cultural entities. NYC has about 31 older ones. (See Museums Collaborative) Last guess. Did you notice there is no longer a fence in front of the steps where GW took the oath? Who engineered getting it taken down? Just post the initials... The chief Acrchitect of the NPS was DD (his initials) at that time. for the snapshots be sure the first letter in each is "B".