Speaking to Legends

#9 Victor Niederhoffer – The Market Speculator

July 01, 2020 Nikita Fadeev Episode 9
Speaking to Legends
#9 Victor Niederhoffer – The Market Speculator
Show Notes Chapter Markers

Victor Niederhoffer is one of the most famous investors and a true pioneer. After rubbing shoulders with a few of the future Nobel Laureates at the University of Chicago, he started a trading firm and made $20 million from the starting capital of $50k within 6 months. In the 90s, he was the right hand man of George Soros and with a 34% rate of return over 20 years, in 1996, he was recognised as the world’s best trader. However, next year he was on the wrong side of the trade and lost all of the capital. In this episode, we discuss the emergence of quant investing, how he started trading for Soros, what are some of the lessons he learnt while being an active market participant for 60 years straight and why he think that Jesse Livermore was a horrible trader.

For links and more information see our episode show notes on our website.

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Statistics and its financial application
Becoming an active market participant
From 50k to 20 million in 6 months
Partnership with George Soros
Parting ways with Soros
Debacle in 1997
Learning lesson from blowing up
Innovation during the early days
The importance of signal generation, execution and risk management
Jesse Livermore and his story
A trader you look up to
Trend is not your friend
Advice to younger self