He Achieved an Empire Through "Mistakes": The Deceptive Game of Financial Tycoon Soros

When Bitcoin breaks through $87,340 in 2025, amid unpredictable global central bank policies and escalating geopolitical tensions, market participants are plunged into unprecedented confusion. Most are oscillating between risk assets and safe-haven tools, trying to find the “correct” investment path.

But historically, there has been one person who is obsessed with finding the “wrong”—that person is the financial titan George Soros. His secret to success is not market predict / prediction, but in times of market frenzy, he recognizes the impending collapse of illusions earlier than anyone else.

How “Wrong” Becomes a Weapon

Soros has a famous saying: “Markets inherently contain opportunities for wealth, but only if you can detect chaos earlier than others and act boldly and carefully to win in the chaos.”

This is not empty motivational talk but a philosophy he has summarized through decades of bloody trading—Market errors are the source of big players’ profits.

He implements this theory mainly on three levels:

First is trend recognition. When mainstream views are still holding firm, Soros has already seen cracks in the fundamentals. During the 1992 British pound attack, when the Bank of England stubbornly maintained the exchange rate link, he watched coldly—this stubbornness itself was a sign of weakness. He invested $24 billion in short positions, and the UK’s central bank ultimately collapsed. In what became known as “Black Wednesday,” Soros alone pocketed $1.3 billion.

Second is the application of “reflexivity.” This is the core of his investment theory. Simply put: speculators’ expectations change the fundamentals, which then self-validate. The 1997 Thai baht crisis is a textbook example of this theory. Soros shorted the baht → sold heavily → market panic ensued → more investors followed suit → the baht truly collapsed. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy, and he was the director.

Finally is timely stop-loss. During the 1998 Russian ruble crisis, when Putin’s government directly closed the sovereign debt market and froze foreign investments, Soros lost $2 billion overnight. But he did not fight against it; instead, he quickly admitted mistakes and exited. This “courage to admit errors” allowed him to survive repeated market waves, while stubborn traders often lost everything.

The Clear-Headed in Market Chaos

Interestingly, Soros’s success is precisely built on the premise that “markets are always wrong.” While mainstream economists still promote “market efficiency,” he saw through:

Economic data are lies spun by politicians, exchange rates are tools for countries’ central banks to hurt each other, asset prices are dances of collective greed and fear. These “absurd trends” are exactly the breeding ground for wealth.

The Southeast Asian storm, the collective plunge of the Asian Tigers, the fall of the British pound—these historical events follow the same logic: when market participants are caught in a collective bias, financial big players quietly position themselves, then profit and exit at the moment the bubble bursts.

In 2015, the aging Soros announced his retirement at the Davos Forum, but he did not stop speaking out. He continued to emphasize one point: Identify absurd market trends, ride the lies upward, and decisively exit before the truth tears the bubble apart—this is the entire secret of alchemy.

The Double Life of a Big Player

However, this big player who has created countless financial ruins in the past has, in his later years, written huge checks for charity. He has invested over $33 billion in human rights, democracy, and education—this number even exceeds four times his $8 billion net worth.

Contradictions arise:

The “Open Society Foundations” he founded have been expelled by 27 governments, labeled as “threats” by American conservatives; Romanian newspapers accuse him of “atoning with bloodstained money”; politicians worldwide demonize him, claiming he manipulates the world behind the scenes.

But Soros’s self-defense is equally powerful: “I oppose closed ideologies. This is the fight I have carried on since surviving under Nazi guns.” He links his investment philosophy with social responsibility, trying to show that those who recognize market lies should also recognize political lies.

Never-Ending Market Dance

One detail worth pondering: the politicians most fiercely attacking Soros are often proven right by his theories. The more stubborn they are in their stance, the more likely they are to fall victim to market laws. This paradoxical cause-and-effect is the cruelest manifestation of reflexivity—indeed, the world is being swallowed by his theories.

Today, as Bitcoin reaches $87,340, global liquidity enters a new cycle, and geopolitical shocks reshape capital flows, Soros’s theories still apply: markets will fall into collective error at some point, big players are identifying those impending collapses, while most participants are anxious over the “correct answer.”

Financial titan Soros is aging, but his ideas still echo in the markets. The next time you see an “absurd prosperity” in the market, remember his lesson: Clear-eyed people see chaos, bold and careful people profit from chaos, and true winners are those who dare to turn away at the height of the frenzy.