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Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, Digital Transformation Strategy (145-slide PowerPoint presentation). Digital Transformation is being embraced by organizations across most industries, as the role of technology shifts from being a business enabler to a business driver. This has only been accelerated by the COVID-19 global pandemic. Thus, to remain competitive and outcompete in today's fast paced, [read more]
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Economic bubbles can make some people millionaires almost overnight, if they get in before the bubble bursts. These financial phenomenon have come from nowhere and left some with riches beyond what they could have ever imagined.
Here are some of the success stories that have come from these bubbles in recent history.
John Paulson
This billionaire made his money on the US housing market, but bet against the market at the time the bubble burst. 50% of the GDP of the US was lost when the bubble burst, but certain backers were able to make money out of the collapse.
Paulson was an investment manager and through fees, managed to earn himself $3 billion to $4 billion from placing his clients’ money. This was widely regarded as one of the best trades in history at the time and Paulson was quickly added to the Forbes rich list.
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss
These twins started to gain notoriety almost a decade ago, as they sued Facebook and were awarded $65 million as they claimed Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea for the social network. Since then, they’ve been busy investing their money and are the 4th richest in Bitcoin. They own their own Bitcoin exchange and so far have billions in the cryptocurrency.
Though it’s hard to say when or even if this bubble will burst, experts believe that the industry worth $120 billion does have the potential to go south. There have been some fluctuations and losses in this market recently, but investors don’t seem to be pulling out of the market as of yet.
George Soros
This investor has long since been associated with the trade of gold and other commodities. He has since sold most of his interests in the gold trade, as of the end of 2016. Commodity trading is much more accessible now than ever before, with firms like ETX Capital allowing anyone with an internet connection to get involved.
The price of gold is often seen as one of the key indicators of the current economic climate. In 1980, the first gold bubble burst during a period of economic uncertainty, prior to this the price of gold had reached $1000 per ounce which wasn’t achieved again until 2008.
Benjamin Cohen
During the dotcom boom, this 17-year-old became the UK’s first dotcom millionaire. He was pushed into the spotlight when his company was valued at a whopping $5 million, despite very few physical assets. Eventually, the bubble burst and the company faded out of the public view.
Cohen has went on to become a writer for various high profile publications, including his own Pink News. According to data from etxcapital.co.uk, $5 trillion was lost to the dotcom bubble between 2000 and 2002, as selling in the fluctuating market caused a mass panic and led many to liquidate their dotcom assets as quickly as possible.
Over the years, bubbles have burst because of just a few companies pulling out of the market and this isn’t set to change any time soon.
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