Stan Druckenmiller might have one of the best long-term trading records and the honor of having raked in $1 billion for George Soros by forcing a devaluation of the British pound in 1992. He might have done his personal motto, “It takes courage to be a pig,” proud. But that doesn’t mean he’s having an easy time of it. Tired of the stress, Druckenmiller is shuttering his firm, Duquesne Capital Management, which oversees $12 billion and has never had a losing year. Partly because it’s down 5 percent this year, but mostly because he can no longer take the emotional toll. In a letter to his 100 clients, Druckenmiller wrote, “While the joy of winning for clients is immense, for me the disappointment of each interim drawdown over the years has taken a cumulative toll that I cannot continue to sustain.”
Druckenmiller toyed with retiring after leaving Soros Management Fund a decade ago, but the decision crystallized after he had to tell Johann Rupert, CEO of the world’s largest jewelry-maker, no to a golf tournament in Scotland. “Are you crazy?” Druckenmiller recalls Rupert saying. “You’ve been doing this for 30 years. You are a billionaire. You can’t take a couple of days off to play golf?” Then, realizing he was worth an estimated $2.8 billion, Druckenmiller decided, yes, there were better things he could do than make the rich richer.
Bloomberg’s Katherine Burton discusses her interview with Druckenmiller.
Druckenmiller Calls It Quits After 30 Years as Job Gets Tougher [Bloomberg]
