Woman trader Muriel Siebert. Success despite the system
Today, the stereotype that financial markets are created only for men is practically dispelled, since a huge number of women have long shown that their trading efficiency is far from worse, and in some cases is an order of magnitude higher.
Unfortunately, gender inequality on the stock exchange was very acute, to the point that a woman was not considered a trader at all.
The opposition was so great that this inequality was also manifested in wages, which were clearly not in favor of the weaker sex.
Naturally, in such conditions, many women gave up their dream of financial independence, but there were also those who, contrary to established foundations, continued to move towards their goal. You will get acquainted with the biography of one of these women in this article.
The main character of our story, Muriel Siebert, was born on September 12, 1928. She lived in Ohio, in the town of Cleveland, in a Jewish, low-income family.
The father was the only breadwinner in the family, while the mother stayed at home with two children and raised them.
She could easily solve any equations; moreover, she had such accounting skills that by taking only one sheet of paper with a set of incomprehensible numbers, she could understand which area of activity the calculations belonged to.
After graduation, the father insisted on developing his daughter’s talent, so he sent Muriel to study at Western Reserve University. It is worth noting that she entered the university in 1949 and studied there for three courses until 1952.
However, despite persistence and diligence in her studies, Siebert was never able to graduate from university. The reason for this was a terrible tragedy in the family; the main breadwinner and sponsor of education, the father, died. Muriel Siebert had to pick up her documents and begin to provide for herself.
Stock career
After the death of the father, the family was left with small savings, in the amount of $500. At that time, newspapers circulated information about the enormous profits that stock traders on Walt Street were achieving.
Muriel Siebert desperately wanted to improve her family's well-being, so she took $500 in savings and went to Walt Street to conquer the stock market.
However, dreams and reality are very harsh, so wherever Muriel went to get a job, she saw direct opposition everywhere, moreover, when most companies hired her, they assigned her to the duties of a secretary and accountant, but did not allow her to actually trade shares.
Nevertheless, Muriel was somehow involved in financial transactions, so she received that very precious experience.
When she finally managed to get a job as a trader, she was faced with another huge injustice - women traders were paid an order of magnitude less than men, despite their trading results.
Pay inequality, despite trading results, has become the final point. So, after leaving another company, she decided to open her own business and founded the company Muriel Siebert & Co.
However, in order to trade, she needed a place on the stock exchange, but since she was a woman, she was presented with a record sum of 450 thousand dollars.
In order to pay this amount, she had to go to the bank and take out a loan, but the bank demanded proof that she would get a place on the exchange, and the exchange itself first demanded money before giving such a certificate. Friends came to the rescue, partially taking out loans and partially providing cash.
At first, the business practically did not go well, because no one trusted the young company. However, after the abolition of a clear rate for exchange transactions at the legislative level, many companies began to sharply increase commissions, while Muriel Siebert & Co sharply reduced them.
This move led to investors lining up and billions of dollars passing through Muriel Siebert's hands.
In 2013, at the age of 84, Muriel Siebert died of cancer. A hall at the New York Stock Exchange was named in her honor. No trader in history has ever received such an honor!