The Pomp Podcast
#546: Srivatsan Prakash On The 6 Most Legendary Trades of All-Time
- George Soros breaking the British pound in 1992 by short-selling £15 billion, capitalizing on the unsustainable exchange rate mechanism and making $1–1.5 billion in profit.
- Paul Tudor Jones predicting the 1987 crash by analyzing parallels to the 1929 crash and shorting the market two weeks before Black Monday, profiting roughly $100 million.
- Andy Krieger at Bank of America shorting the New Zealand dollar with 400:1 leverage, accumulating a position larger than New Zealand's money supply and netting $300 million.
- David Tepper buying distressed bank assets and debt during the 2008–2009 financial crisis at steep discounts, generating $7 billion in profits for Appaloosa Management and $4 billion personally.
- John Paulson purchasing credit default swaps on subprime mortgage-backed securities before the 2008 collapse, personally netting $4 billion.
- John Arnold profiting $3 billion as Amaranth Advisors collapsed in 2006 after making bad natural gas bets on the opposite side of Arnold's positions.