Bruce Kovner
Bruce Kovner is an accomplished trader who has earned more than $2.5 billion by trading the foreign exchange market and futures.
Yes, Bruce Kovner became a living example of successful traders who conquered not only the stock exchange, but also the Forex market.
The most interesting thing is that he was not a specialist in economics and moved to stock trading from a completely different profession, or more precisely from the position of a teacher.
The desire for self-realization and a lot of work made Bruce what he is now, and his story of success and the hard path of self-improvement has become an excellent example for novice traders.
Bruce was born in New York in 1945. Kovner has Russian roots, since his grandfather could have been arrested for political views, the family had to flee to the United States.
Bruce Kovner was an obedient and smart boy, so at school he was repeatedly awarded certificates for his academic performance, and at the age of sixteen he was made president of the school. Naturally, for his efforts in study and success, Bruce Kovner received a scholarship to Harvard University to study political science.
Since Bruce came under the wing of the famous scientist Edward Banfield, he was predicted to have a bright future in the scientific field. However, grief struck the family, namely his mother committed suicide. Unable to bear such a loss, Bruce quits Harvard and spends time with his grieving father.
Having survived the loss, he returns to study, and since he was a good student, he is quickly reinstated and allowed to study. However, this loss greatly affected the young man, so he was never able to complete his doctoral dissertation.
Actually, Bruce Kovner himself stated in his interviews that he did not really like the scientific environment, so he did not pursue a scientific degree.
After graduating from Harvard, he taught political science at the same university for a long time, and then transferred to Pennsylvania where he continued to teach his subject. Actually, Bruce did not see a future in a teaching career, so he tried to enter the political arena, namely, in the late 70s, as a political scientist, he helped several candidates conduct elections, and also planned to become a politician himself.
However, the lack of money for political advertising and the opportunity to conduct a full-fledged election campaign scared off the novice politician.
Getting to know the stock exchange. Career ladder
As a political scientist, Bruce Kovner was well aware that politics directly affects securities, but he did not fully understand how this happens. Having a very strong background in political science, he decides to try his hand at stock trading.
However, Bruce did not immediately run to the broker, but began a very difficult independent path of self-education. So, while analyzing interest rates and possible profitability, Bruce noticed an interesting pattern, namely the opportunity to make money on the spread. The essence of the method is quite simple, namely, two interest rate futures are selected and based on their correlation, the hedged position.
As a profit, the trader receives interest for holding positions in the form of an interest rate.
After testing his strategy, Bruce Kovner borrows $3,000 from the bank and tries to implement his strategy.
In a fairly short period of time, from three thousand dollars, Bruce trades about 40, constantly reinvesting his profits, however, by deviating from the broker’s recommendation, he literally loses 20 thousand dollars overnight.
Having received his first experience, Bruce gets a job at Commodities Corporation as a trader, and he himself becomes its leader Michael Marcus. Having gone through a good school with a famous mentor, Bruce opened his own company, Caxton, in 1983, which continues to operate successfully to this day. Bruce Kovner's net worth is estimated at more than $2.5 billion.