Female trader Muriel Siebert: Success against the system
Today, the stereotype that financial markets are created only for men has been virtually dispelled, as a large number of women have long since demonstrated that their trading efficiency is far from inferior, and in some cases, an order of magnitude higher.
Unfortunately, gender inequality on the stock exchange was very pronounced, to the point that women were not even considered traders.
The opposition was so great that this inequality was also reflected in wages, which were clearly not in favor of the weaker sex.
Naturally, under these circumstances, many women gave up on their dreams of financial independence, but there were also those who defied established norms and continued to pursue their goal. You'll learn about the life story of one such woman in this article.
The main character of our story, Muriel Siebert, was born on September 12, 1928. She lived in the city of Cleveland in Ohio, in a Jewish family of limited means.
The only breadwinner in the family was the father, while the mother stayed at home with two children and was responsible for raising them.
She could easily solve any equation, moreover, she had such accounting skills that by taking just one sheet of paper with a set of incomprehensible numbers, she could understand which area of activity the calculations belonged to.
After graduating from high school, her father insisted on developing his daughter's talent, so he sent Muriel to Western Reserve University. It's worth noting that she enrolled in 1949 and studied there for three years, until 1952.
However, despite her persistence and diligence in her studies, Siebert was never able to graduate. This was due to a terrible family tragedy: her father, the main breadwinner and sponsor of her education, died. Muriel Siebert was forced to withdraw her documents and begin supporting herself.
Stock market career
After the father's death, the family was left with a small savings of $500. At the time, newspapers were circulating reports of the enormous profits being made by stock traders on Wall Street.
Muriel Siebert desperately wanted to improve her family's well-being, so she took $500 in savings and headed to Wall Street to conquer the stock market.
However, dreams and reality are very harsh, so wherever Muriel went to apply for a job, she saw direct opposition everywhere. Moreover, when most companies hired her, they transferred her to the duties of a secretary and accountant, but did not allow her to actually trade shares.
However, Muriel was involved in financial transactions in one way or another, so she gained that very valuable experience.
When she finally managed to get a job as a trader, she encountered another huge injustice: women traders were paid significantly less than men, regardless of their trading results.
Despite her trading results, pay inequality became the breaking point. So, after leaving her current job, she decided to start her own business and founded Muriel Siebert & Co.
However, in order to trade, she needed a place on the exchange, but since she was a woman, she presented a record amount of 450 thousand dollars.
To pay this amount, she had to go to the bank and take out a loan, but the bank demanded proof that she would be accepted on the exchange, and the exchange itself required cash before issuing such a certificate. Friends came to the rescue, taking out loans and providing cash.
At first, business was practically nonexistent, as no one trusted the young company. However, after the legislative abolition of fixed fees for stock exchange transactions, many companies began sharply increasing their commissions, while Muriel Siebert & Co. drastically reduced theirs.
This move resulted in investors lining up, and billions of dollars passing through Muriel Siebert's hands.
In 2013, Muriel Siebert died of cancer at the age of 84. A hall at the New York Stock Exchange was named in her honor. No other trader in history has ever received such an honor!
