George Soros

It’s not whether you’re right or wrong that’s important, but how much money you make when you’re right and how much you lose when you’re wrong.

George Soros

Trade aggressively when you are confident. There is no point in being confident and having a small position. There are few occasions when one is very strong about a stock and these are the times when one should capitalize on it. Increase your bets when you are confident and scale down your positions when you don’t have conviction

George Soros

A full and fair discussion is essential to democracy.

George Soros

An open society is a society which allows its members the greatest possible degree of freedom in pursuing their interests compatible with the interests of others.

George Soros

The more the theory of efficient markets is believed, the less efficient the markets become. – George Soros

George Soros

I think there’s a lot of merit in an international economy and global markets, but they’re not sufficient because markets don’t look after social needs.

George Soros

I’m not doing my philanthropic work, out of any kind of guilt, or any need to create good public relations. I’m doing it because I can afford to do it, and I believe in it.

George Soros

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

George Soros

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

George Soros

Stock market bubbles don’t grow out of thin air. They have a solid basis in reality, but reality as distorted by a misconception.

George Soros

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.

George Soros

The people currently in charge have forgotten the first principle of an open society, namely that we may be wrong and that there has to be free discussion. That it’s possible to be opposed to the policies without being unpatriotic.

George Soros

The worse a situation becomes the less it takes to turn it around, the bigger the upside.

George Soros

Well, you know, I was a human being before I became a businessman.

George Soros

When I had made more money than I needed for myself and my family, I set up a foundation to promote the values and principles of a free and open society.

George Soros

If investing is entertaining, if you’re having fun, you’re probably not making any money. Good investing is boring.

George Soros

I’m only rich because I know when I’m wrong…I basically have survived by recognizing my mistakes.

George Soros

When money is free, the rational lender will keep on lending until there is no one else to lend to.

George Soros

Whenever there is a conflict between universal principles and self-interest, self-interest is likely to prevail.

George Soros

Misconceptions play a prominent role in my view of the world.

George Soros

The main enemy of the open society, I believe, is no longer the communist but the capitalist threat.

George Soros

As I discovered, there is a great deal of similarity between a boom-bust process in the financial markets and the rise and fall of the Soviet system.

George Soros

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.

George Soros

The hardest thing to judge is what level of risk is safe.

George Soros

Unfortunately, the more complex the system, the greater the room for error.

George Soros

I believe the market prices are always wrong in the sense that they present a biased view of the future.

George Soros

Making an investment decision is like formulating a scientific hypothesis and submitting it to a practical test. The main difference is that the hypothesis that underlies an investment decision is intended to make money and not to establish a universally valid generalization.

George Soros

Taking this view, it is possible to see financial markets as a laboratory for testing hypotheses, albeit not strictly scientific ones. The truth is, successful investing is a kind of alchemy.

George Soros

It is credit that matters, not money (in other words, monetarism is a false ideology).

George Soros

The only thing that could hurt me is if my success encouraged me to return to my childhood fantasies of omnipotence — but that is not likely to happen as long as I remain engaged in the financial markets, because they constantly remind me of my limitations.

George Soros

The trouble with institutional investors is that their performance is usually measured relative to their peer group and not by an absolute yardstick. This makes them trend followers by definition.

George Soros

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.

George Soros

I am for maximum supervision and minimum regulation.

George Soros

Every bubble consists of a trend that can be observed in the real world and a misconception relating to that trend. The two elements interact with each other in a reflexive manner.

George Soros

Markets are designed to allow individuals to look after their private needs and to pursue profit. It’s really a great invention and I wouldn’t under-estimate the value of that, but they’re not designed to take care of social needs.

George Soros