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- THE WEEK, Page 23BUSINESSTips from the Master
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- How to make a billion while all around you lose their shirts
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- To high-rolling currency speculators like London-based
- billionaire George Soros, there is no sweeter music than the
- roar of an international exchange-rate crisis. In his latest
- orchestration, Soros reaped profits to the tune of $1 billion
- by staking seven-digit sums of leveraged cash on a future drop
- in the value of the lira and pound sterling. Amid Europe's
- ongoing currency flux, Soros could have easily come out a big
- loser. But when the pound tumbled, his risky triumph delighted
- investors in the Soros-run Quantum Fund and peeved officials in
- Western Europe's vulnerable central banks, who were forced to
- cough up billions to prop up slipping currencies. Perhaps the
- banks' anger was just; speculators can push a currency up or
- down as much as 15% an hour.
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