Trader Ken Griffin
Ken Griffin has become a world-famous figure thanks to his hedge fund, Citadel, which is worth just over $25 billion.
However, it is not the fact that Griffin is a billionaire that attracts people's attention, but the story of his formation, and it is difficult to call this story unsurprising.
The well-rounded Ken Griffin makes for a great role model, as his rise to fame is a classic example of how determination can make billions.
The future founder of Citadel was born on October 15, 1968 in the small town of Daytona Beach, which is located within the state of Florida.
However, after his birth, his parents decided to move to a more pleasant resort town called Boca Raton.
Just imagine that very young Kenuzhe, at school age, read a lot of literature on computers and managed to blow the minds of computer equipment sellers in the nearest supermarkets.
No, don’t think that the boy was very nosy, he just loved computers so much that he was always chasing the latest information, and the sellers had it.
When the young man was only 17 years old, he skillfully fixed bugs in IBM software, since he worked there as a tester. However, such work did not bring much money or moral satisfaction, so he resigned from his position and formed his own company selling software for schools and universities.
Despite the fact that Griffin eventually went out of business, the company he founded at the age of 17 is still operating today.
Education. Getting to know the exchange
After graduating from school and creating his own business, Ken Griffin enters Harvard. The most interesting thing is that Ken’s acquaintance with the stock exchange happened by accident. So, one day he read an article in Bloomberg, an article in which it was said that the shares of one of the companies were overvalued and could soon fall in price.
On a whim, the young man believes the magazine and opens a sell position and earns his first money. However, when Griffin decided to cash out his earnings, it turned out that most of his earnings were eaten up by commissions and various expenses, which ultimately led to the loss of money.
This situation hit Giffin very hard, so instead of abandoning the stock exchange forever, he begins to actively study the material.
Toward the end of his freshman year, Griffin began skipping classes because he was trading independently from his dorm room. After the summer holidays, Griffin left his own business and also borrowed money from relatives in the amount of 265 thousand dollars, which became his first capital.
In 1989, Ken's deposit was just over a million dollars, but investors were in no hurry to invest in him. However, one of his acquaintances introduced Griffin to investor Meyer, who believed the 23-year-old youth and entrusted him with his own million dollars.
Organizing your own hedge fund.
Actually, at the end of the year, Griffin earned more than 70 percent per annum, and in 1990, having received additional financing, he opened the Wellington Financial Group fund with an authorized capital of 4 million.
Meyer's participation in the fund created confidence among investors, and three-year returns in the 30 percent range attracted a huge influx of money. However, in 1994, due to Griffin's mistake, the fund lost 4.5 percent of its capital, causing an outflow of investments.
After serious reprimand from investors, Ken Griffin promised that this would never happen again and, to confirm his promise, he renamed his fund Citadel in order to create more confidence by associating his fund with an impregnable fortress.
Today, the Citadel fund has 13 representative offices around the world, and the company employs 1,200 people. The fund is actively developing to this day, and its assets amount to just over $25 billion.
The founder's fortune today is estimated at just over $7 billion.