The Management Principles of George Soros

In this third article, we will cover the management principles of this legendary firm.

(I) Be Part Of A Global ‘Intelligence Network’

One advantage that the Palindrome had was his ‘intelligence network’. His rise from obscurity in the early 1960s to commercial stardom on Wall Street brought him the powerful perks of wealth and fame. With this, he realized that he could access vital people from the upper echelons of government or commerce, and hence, worked hard to develop a professional network.

With this professional network, he could get the opinions of very informed people to ‘stress test’ his own views and alert him to new trading opportunities.

Widen your circle as much as possible. Network with as many people as possible — you’ll never know when and where your next best idea will come from.

Iron sharpens Iron Do you have a global ‘intelligence network’? Or are you part of one?

(II) Constantly Source For Talent

This may be a clichéd point, as it’s intuitive to any business person. Without competent and capable people in your firm, there can be no real progress. By allowing talented individuals to flourish and develop, you also allow them to contribute to the overall growth of your organization.

Time must be devoted to finding talented individuals. This process is continuous.

As the Quantum Fund got bigger due to its meteoric rise and stellar performance over the decades, Soros had to expand the organization and train up future successors and leaders of the firm. He was constantly on the lookout for talented macro traders such as Stanley Druckenmiller, Nicholas Roditi and Scott Bessent.

(III) Leverage External Expertise

Soros relied on external expertise to generate the best returns.

In the 1990s, Soros delegated some of his firm’s equity to Victor Niederhoffer after recognising his trading talent.

More recently, Soros allocated a substantial amount of his family office’s assets to bond king Bill Gross when he left PIMCO.

Soros doesn’t care if he’s actually placing the trades. Once he identifies an opportunity, he’s perfectly fine with sourcing outside expertise to help him capture it.

The trading universe is massive. There will be certain markets or segments that are niche, requiring expertise beyond your field or competency. You only need to identify the opportunity, and then find a way to leverage on external expertise.

Take these management principles and lessons from the world’s most famous hedge fund manager. It could take your own investment business to the next level!

 

 

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Brandon Beylo

Value Investor

Brandon has been a professional investor focusing on value for over 13 years, spending his time in small to micro-cap companies, spin-offs, SPACs, and deep value liquidation situations. Over time, he’s developed a deeper understanding for what deep-value investing actually means, and refined his philosophy to include any business trading at a wild discount to what he thinks its worth in 3-5 years.

Brandon has a tenacious passion for investing, broad-based learning, and business. He previously worked for several leading investment firms before joining the team at Macro Ops. He lives by the famous Munger mantra of trying to get a little smarter each day.

AK

Investing & Personal Finance

AK is the founder of Macro Ops and the host of Fallible.

He started out in corporate economics for a Fortune 50 company before moving to a long/short equity investment firm.

With Macro Ops focused primarily on institutional clients, AK moved to servicing new investors just starting their journey. He takes the professional research and education produced at Macro Ops and breaks it down for beginners. The goal is to help clients find the best solution for their investing needs through effective education.

Tyler Kling

Volatility & Options Trader

Former trade desk manager at $100+ million family office where he oversaw multiple traders and helped develop cutting edge quantitative strategies in the derivatives market.

He worked as a consultant to the family office’s in-house fund of funds in the areas of portfolio manager evaluation and capital allocation.

Certified in Quantitative Finance from the Fitch Learning Center in London, England where he studied under famous quants such as Paul Wilmott.

Alex Barrow

Macro Trader

Founder and head macro trader at Macro Ops. Alex joined the US Marine Corps on his 18th birthday just one month after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He subsequently spent a decade in the military. Serving in various capacities from scout sniper to interrogator and counterintelligence specialist. Following his military service, he worked as a contract intelligence professional for a number of US agencies (from the DIA to FBI) with a focus on counterintelligence and terrorist financing. He also spent time consulting for a tech company that specialized in building analytic software for finance and intelligence analysis.

After leaving the field of intelligence he went to work at a global macro hedge fund. He’s been professionally involved in markets since 2005, has consulted with a number of the leading names in the hedge fund space, and now manages his own family office while running Macro Ops. He’s published over 300 white papers on complex financial and macroeconomic topics, writes regularly about investment/market trends, and frequently speaks at conferences on trading and investing.

Macro Ops is a market research firm geared toward professional and experienced retail traders and investors. Macro Ops’ research has been featured in Forbes, Marketwatch, Business Insider, and Real Vision as well as a number of other leading publications.

You can find out more about Alex on his LinkedIn account here and also find him on Twitter where he frequently shares his market research.