The world’s greatest investors: Michael Steinhardt
Michael Steinhardt carved out a profitable career in variant perception: finding where the market consensus was flawed, then trading against it.
Michael Steinhardt was born in New York in 1940. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1960, aged 19. He worked for seven years as an analyst with the Wall Street bank Loeb and Rhoades. In 1967 he set up his own investment fund, Steinhardt, Fine, Berkowitz & Co. Apart from a brief one-year break in 1978, he continued to make the main investment decisions for the firm, taking over sole control from his partners in 1979. He finally wound up Steinhardt Partners in 1995. In 2004 he returned to the investment world as chairman of WisdomTree Investments.
What was his strategy?
Did it work out?
This saw him amass a $1.2bn fortune, according to Forbes. However, his career was not without controversy in 1994 he had personally to pay $40m to the Department of Justice to settle claims that he had manipulated the bond market.
What was his best trade?
What lessons are there for individual investors?
Subscribe to MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE
Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Sign up to Money Morning
Our team, led by award winning editors, is dedicated to delivering you the top news, analysis, and guides to help you manage your money, grow your investments and build wealth.
Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.
He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.
Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.
As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.
Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri
-
The top stocks in the FTSE 100
After a year of strong returns for the UK’s flagship index, which FTSE 100 stocks have posted the best performance in 2024?
By Dan McEvoy Published
-
A junior ISA could turn your child’s pocket money into thousands of pounds
Persuading your child to put their pocket money in a junior ISA might be difficult, but the pennies could quickly grow into pounds – and teach them a valuable lesson about money
By Katie Williams Published