Thomas Peterffy quotes: the daddy of digital trading learns us.
“If you’re willing to study hard and work hard, the world is your oyster.”
“Never bend the rules. You bend the rules a little bit and then it’s a slippery slope.”
“Discipline is important for everything in life.”
“Self-discipline is what separates the winners and the losers.”
“You win a few, you lose a few.”
“Young people dream about the kind of life they would like to lead but their potential to achieve that is usually limited in most countries by laws and regulations or social or religious barriers. These barriers, still today, exist only to a much lesser extent in America. There is comparatively a great deal of individual and economic freedom to achieve those dreams by those who are really determined.”
“I had an extremely boring time doing 20 to 30 trades a day while everyone was talking about baseball or basketball. So I stood there fantasizing about a device that could do the same thing I was doing.”
“Some traders still think that a computer could not trade as well as they can.”
“I don’t think my basic business strategy is well known by the public, probably because people think it’s too simple. My strategy has always been to try to focus in on a product or service where you can create a dollar of value for 20 cents and sell it for 40 cents.”
“The only way to do that is to use technology that has not been used before in producing that product or service. If I can create that dollar, then I’m already ahead 20 cents of earnings, and I’m going to keep way, way, way ahead. That’s what I’ve been doing all along.”
“I don’t think there is anything unusual about a business losing money in certain years.”
“Advertising is so touchy-feely. You have to speak to the psyche of the people.”
“I always preferred computer programmers because I knew how to talk to them. I never knew how to talk to salesmen because I never believed them.”
“America’s wealth comes from the efforts of people striving for success. Take away their incentive with badmouthing success and you take away the wealth that helps us take care of the needy.”
“I understood about the idea of capitalism. Capitalism was the only system that offered freedom of opportunity for people to use their talents to reach their goals.”
“It seems like people don’t learn from the past.”
“I grew up in a socialist country. And I have seen what that does to people. There is no hope, no freedom. No pride in achievement.”
“In socialism the rich will be poorer – but the poor will also be poorer. People will lose interest in really working hard and creating jobs.”
“As a child, I grew up in fear. When I was four, all my other relatives were deported to the countryside, having to leave most of their personal belongings behind.”
“My mother had various jobs, from where she was regularly fired as politically undesirable. I often saw her crying and mumbling that we’ll starve to death.”
“In high school in Hungary, I sold contraband Juicy Fruit gum to classmates at a 500% markup.”
“As a young boy, I was fantasizing about one day going to America, making a success of myself. The American Dream.”
“It was a big deal to leave home and my culture and my language. But I believed that in America, I could truly reap what I sowed and that the measure of a man was his ability and determination to succeed. This was the land of boundless opportunity.”
“Five years after I came, I became a citizen and felt an enormous sense of pride, a strong sense of belonging, the start of a new life at 26.”
“When I arrived in the United States I spoke no English and had no job. But I learned the language, worked hard, put myself through school and used my talents, skills and knowledge to seek and achieve my dream.”
“After emigrating to America, I saved up $200,000 working as an engineer to buy a $36,000 seat on the American Stock Exchange, where I traded options. In 1993, I started my own company, Interactive Brokers, growing it to become the largest U.S. electronic brokerage firm in daily average revenue trades, employing thousands. Called the ‘father of digital trading’ – the hard work and dedication made me one of the wealthiest people in America.”
“Provided that your goal is to assimilate yourself, and to contribute, it is certainly possible for an immigrant to someday reach his level of success. The freedom to create a better life, to get a job and excel by thinking smart and working hard, to learn a trade, to learn how to run a business and to become part of it or to start your own.”
“And that is why people come to America. That is what is so great about her. It is the dream of being who you want to be and the freedom to pursue it, the freedom to succeed, the freedom to fail, and the freedom to keep the fruits of your labors – the dream of a better life for you and your family.”
“The rich support the poor, primarily via taxes.”
“I paid $1.9 billion in taxes in my lifetime.”
“Software makes the world go round. Artificial intelligence, material sciences, nano sciences, and molecular biology all represent fields in which valuable new products and services can and are being created.”
“I see no point in exchanging something that I understand, know, love and think will have a great future… for something else that I know much less about.”
“Let’s look back into the past and repeat what has worked and keep away from what hasn’t.”
“I do not plan to retire. As I grow older, I am of course slowing down, but making plans for new things. Creating new things is always an extremely interesting process and to see projects coming to fruition is extremely self satisfying.”
Even more entertaining are Tim Sykes quotes.
