Who Is George Soros?

By Lyle Daly – Updated Aug 27, 2025 at 7:35 PM | Fact-checked by Frank Bass

Key Points

Soros made $1 billion by shorting the British pound in 1992.
His fund, Quantum Fund, outperformed the S&P 500 with 20% annual returns.
Soros' investment philosophy -- reflexivity -- challenges efficient market theory.

George Soros is an investor, philanthropist, and one of the world's richest people. Born in 1930, he studied at the London School of Economics and went on to make billions of dollars as a hedge fund manager. In this profile of Soros, we'll cover his career and the investment approach that made him so successful.

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A business person looking at stock charts on screens. — Image source: Getty Images.

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The prevailing wisdom is that markets are always right. I take the opposition position. I assume that markets are always wrong. Even if my assumption is occasionally wrong, I use it as a working hypothesis.
George Soros

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About the Author

Lyle Daly is a contributing Motley Fool stock market analyst covering information technology and cryptocurrency. Lyle has been a contributor at the financial services company since 2018. His work has been featured on USA Today, Yahoo Finance, MSN, Fox Business, and Nasdaq. Before joining The Motley Fool, he wrote for financial brands including Intuit.

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