Jim Rogers – The Adventurist Macro Strategy Trader and Investment Guru
First-time father at 60, James Beeland Rogers Jr, also known as Jim Rogers, is an American businessman, investor, and financial commentator who lives in Singapore.
He is famous for starting the Quantum Fund together with George Soros, and he was interviewed in Jack Schwager’s Market Wizards.
In this article, we look at Jim Rogers’ early life and career, we touch upon his trading strategies, and we end the article with some of his best quotes.
Jim Rogers’ early life and career
Jim was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and grew up in Demopolis, Alabama. He got his acumen for business at an early age, selling peanuts and used plastic dropped by baseball fans.
After graduating from high school, Jim went to Yale University, earning a B.S in History in 1964. Two years later, in 1966, he pursued and acquired a second degree from the University of Oxford in the field of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics while being a member of Balliol College.
He joined Dominick & Dominick, LLC on Wall Street in 1964, where he got his first knowledge about stocks and bonds. Jim was in the army during the Vietnam War from 1966 to 1968. Two years after his service in the Vietnam War, Jim joined Arnhold and S. Bleicheoder, an investment bank where he met business partner George Soros.
In 1973, Jim and Soros resigned from Arnhold Bleicheoder and established the Quantum Fund. Its portfolio gained about 4200 percent while the S&P 500 saw a 47% ascent. Quantum Fund was of the world’s real global funds.
Besides making money, Jim is an adventurist. He retired from the fund in 1980 to pursue his long-term dream of traveling around the world, which he did and got his name printed in the Guinness Book of World Records. From 1990 to 1992, Jim traveled from China again and around the world on a motorcycle, covering a long distance of over a hundred thousand miles across six continents. The story of his adventure and adventure can be found in his bestselling book the “Investment Biker”; also, Jim embarked on another Guinness-recognized trip with his wife, Paige Parker, in a custom-made Mercedes, this time-traveling a distance of 245000km (between early 1999 to early 2002).
He’s chairman of Beeland Interests, Inc., and founder of the International Commodity Index. The Index and its three sub-indices are linked to exchange-traded notes, which track the total return of the indices. Jim supports investing in the agricultural sector.
He shifted his investment focus to the Asian market, and in December 2007, Jim sold New York City house for about $16 million and relocated to Singapore. He said, “If you were smart in 1807, you moved to London, if you were smart in 1907, you moved to New York City, and if you were smart in 2007, you move to Asia.”
His work has been featured many times in the “Washington Post”, “Forbes”, “New York Times”, and “The Wall Street Journal”. He loves teaching and has taught at Columbia University Graduate School of Business as a Professor of Finance. In April 2019, his book on Korean unification earned him an honorary Ph.D. from Pusan National University.
Jim enjoys riding motorcycles and traveling around the world. His trip has helped him to gain knowledge about how the stock market operates in different countries in the world, and he invested in them wisely.
Jim Rogers quotes
We end the article with some Jim Rogers trading quotes, most of them taken from Jack Schwager’s interview in Market Wizards:
Those who can not adjust to change will be swept aside by it. Those who recognize change and react accordingly will benefit.
Not one country in existence today has had the same borders and government for as long as two hundred years. The world will continue changing.
One of the best rules anybody can learn about investing is to do nothing, absolutely nothing, unless there is something to do.
I just wait until there is money lying in the corner, and all I have to do is go over there and pick it up. I do nothing in the meantime.
Good investing is really just common sense. But it is astonishing how few people have common sense – how many people can look at the exact same scenario, the exact same facts and not see what is going to happen.
Nearly every time I strayed from the herd, I’ve made a lot of money. Wandering away from the action is the way to find the new action.
There is nothing better than having to struggle and make your own way.
Do not worry about failure, I would tell them. Do not worry about making mistakes in life. It is good to lose money, to go broke at least once, and preferably twice. But if you are going to do it, do it early in your career.
Bottoms in the investment world don’t end with four-year lows; they end with 10- or 15-year lows.
Why did Jim Rogers shift his investment focus to Asia, and where does he currently reside?
In December 2007, Jim Rogers sold his New York City house for about $16 million and relocated to Singapore. He shifted his focus to Asia, stating, “If you were smart in 2007, you moved to Asia.”
According to Jim Rogers, what advice does he give about failure and making mistakes in life?
Jim advises not to worry about failure and making mistakes, stating that it is good to lose money and go broke at least once or twice, especially early in one’s career.
How does Jim Rogers view bottoms in the investment world?
Jim Rogers states that bottoms don’t end with four-year lows but with 10- or 15-year lows, highlighting the importance of recognizing long-term trends in investments.,
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