Andy Krieger's story
Before entering finance, Krieger received a B.A. in philosophy and a Masters in South Asian Regional studies from the University of Pennsylvania. He also completed coursework for a PhD in Oriental Studies, including the translation of an eighth-century Sanskrit text, but decided to pursue a career in finance instead. He later earned an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Finance.
Krieger's career began at the famous Salomon Brothers trading floor of the 80s, before he moved on to run the global currency options business for Banker's Trust. It was here that he cemented his place in trading folklore by executing one of the most successful trades of all time, and setting a new record in 1987 as the world's highest-earning trader. He was later hired by Quantum Fund as George Soros's successor, but eventually decided to start his own asset management business.
Andy has always thrived in volatile market conditions, using a variety of limited-risk option strategies to earn excellent risk-adjusted returns across many markets. Although he focused a significant amount of his trading on the forex markets, he has traded successfully in over seventy different markets. By using long option strategies on a strategic basis, Andy was able to earn particularly high returns when markets became chaotic. On a few occasions he earned more than 100% in a year, including 2007, when he earned over 300% for his clients. In 2008, when the entire financial system was on the brink of collapsing, Andy still generated over 75% returns.
During his career, Andy also implemented a number of trend-following strategies, which he ran independently from his discretionary trading program. These trend-following portfolios earned consistent double-digit returns for over a decade, but ultimately Andy decided to embed the trend-following strategies into his discretionary portfolio as a diversifier.
Andy has served as a special advisor to many international banks and companies and advised several central banks on the management of their reserves. Krieger's book, The Money Bazaar, a history of the currency markets, was published in 1992.
Andy speaks many languages, including Bengali, Spanish, French, German, Hebrew, Sanskrit, and Arabic. He has earned the Friend of India award for his social service to the country after the Tsunami in 2004, and a Congressional award for his community service. For many years he served with Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammed Yunus on the Microcredit Summit, where Krieger was Co-Chair and head of the Council of Banks and Commercial Finance Institutions.
