Trader’s Narrative

Institutional Investor did a cover story on the otherwise shy and enigmatic Thomas Peterffy, founder of Interactive Brokers.

Here are some excerpts:

• Peterffy was born in Budapest during a 1944 bombing raid by the Russians.
• He came to the US in 1965 and taught himself programming
• In 1977, he bought an AMEX seat
• “As I stood on the floor, I was constantly fantasizing about how to put what I was doing into a computer program”
• IB is one of the biggest market-makers in the world trading in over 9,400 securities on more than 50 exchanges world wide
• IB has revenues of +$1 billion with half being profits (!)

Reading about Perteffy’s life and accomplishments made me recall this quote:

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
-George Bernard Shaw