4. George Soros’ Russia gamble
Hungarian-American investor George Soros has pulled off some spectacular financial coups in his time, including his audacious short sell of sterling in September 1992, a move that netted his Quantum Fund $1 billion and made him the “man who broke the Bank of England”.
However, in the late 1990s, his fortunes changed drastically. Quantum Fund had invested heavily in Russia, mainly in equities and bonds. The country’s economy came crashing down in 1998, and the Russian government ended up devaluing the ruble and defaulting on its debt. As a result, Soros lost a total of $2 billion, the equivalent of $3 billion in today’s money.
