George Soros Quotes - Page 2

Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes.

I'm only rich because I know when I'm wrong.

Once a trend is established it tends to persist and to run it’s full course.

Markets are constantly in a state of uncertainty and flux and money is made by discounting the obvious and betting on the unexpected.

When a long-term trend loses it’s momentum, short-term volatility tends to rise. It is easy to see why that should be so: the trend-following crowd is disoriented.

To be successful, you need leisure. You need time hanging heavily on your hands.

Investors operate with limited funds and intelligence, they do not need to know everything. As long as they understand something better than others, they have an edge.

The collapse of the global marketplace would be a traumatic event with unimaginable consequences. Yet I find it easier to imagine than the continuation of the present regime.

Find the trend whose premise is false, and bet against it.

Every bubble has two components: something - some real trend, and a misconception about that trend.

We [at Soros Fund Management] use options and more exotic derivatives sparingly. We try to catch new trends early and in later stages we try to catch trend reversals. Therefore, we tend to stabilize rather than destabilize the market. We are not doing this as a public service. It is our style of making money.

Short term volatility is greatest at turning points and diminishes as a trend becomes established

The financial markets generally are unpredictable. So that one has to have different scenarios... The idea that you can actually predict what's going to happen contradicts my way of looking at the market.

I'll tell you what I'd do if it were up to me: I would establish a strictly controlled distribution network through which I would make most drugs, excluding the most dangerous ones like crack, legally available. Initially I would keep the prices low enough to destroy the drug trade. Once that objective was attained I would keep raising the prices, very much like the excise duty on cigarettes, but I would make an exception for registered addicts in order to discourage crime. I would use a portion of the income for prevention and treatment. And I would foster social opprobrium of drug use.

I fancied myself as some kind of god or an economic reformer like Keynes

Although I have made a fortune in the financial markets, I now fear that the untrammeled intensification of laissez-faire capitalism and the spread of market values into all areas of life is endangering our open and democratic society. The main enemy of the open society, I believe, is no longer the communist but the capitalist threat.

In certain circumstances, financial markets can affect the so-called fundamentals which they are supposed to reflect. When that happens, markets enter into a state of dynamic disequilibrium and behave quite differently from what would be considered normal by the theory of efficient markets. Such boom/bust sequences do not arise very often, but when they do, they can be very disruptive, exactly because they affect the fundamentals of the economy.

Making an investment decision is like formulating a scientific hypothesis and submitting it to a practical test.

There is always a divergence between our perception and what actually exists.

There is very little difference between speculation and investment. The only difference is basically that investments are successful speculations because if you successfully anticipate the future you make a speculative profit.

I give away something up to $500 million a year throughout the world promoting Open Society. My foundations support people in the country who care about an open society. It's their work that I'm supporting. So it's not me doing it.

The strength of this country lies in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights and the freedom of speech and thought.

Start by assuming the market is always wrong, so if you copy everybody else on Wall Street, you're doomed to do poorly.

If I had to sum up my practical skills, I would use one word: survival. And operating a hedge fund utilized my training in survival to the fullest.

America needs to follow the policies it has introduced in Germany. We have to go through a certain de-Nazification process.