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Thomas Peterffy Quotes

20 quotes from Thomas Peterffy — Founder and chairman of Interactive Brokers, one of the world's most efficient electronic brokerage firms..

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“I think bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are great ideas. They should be allowed to be traded freely and used freely to find their appropriate role in the economy.”

Innovation

“What I am objecting to is linking bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies by federal regulations to the real economy, which would happen if we were to clear bitcoin along with other products in the same trading house.”

Regulation

“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.”

Perseverance

“The meaning of freedom is in the U.S. Constitution. Republicans want to live by the document's original meaning.”

Freedom

“My charitable donations go to educational efforts, such as Teach for America, Vanderbilt University, Berkshire School.”

Charity

“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.”

Investment

“I think I am lucky to have grown up in a socialist country where inefficiencies were apparent. I think about the reasons for them and what I would have done differently had that been possible.”

Reflection

“Whenever I wanted in on a good trade, they claimed that they could not understand me.”

— SIFMA conference, 2023Challenges

“I hired an electrical engineer hobbyist.”

Innovation

“Some traders still think that a computer could not trade as well as they can.”

Technology

“I would like to point out that we have come dangerously close to the collapse of the entire system.”

Crisis

“You must think about your goals all of the time.”

Motivation

“I was a very bad student. I'm dyslexic and had trouble in school. So I escaped into daydreaming.”

Education

“I always wanted to make some money because we didn't have any.”

— Thomas Peterffy

“He was a very well-educated man, but he was a psychiatrist. He didn't know anything about markets. I realized: If he can figure it out, so can I.”

— Thomas Peterffy, on his mentor Henry Jarecki

“As soon as the electronic brain is hooked up to its voice box so it can answer the phone, staff will be able to go on permanent vacation.”

— Thomas Peterffy, to Barron's, September 1971

“On Wall Street I feel like I am Alice in Wonderland. Nothing makes sense. Everything is mixed up and different than I think it should be.”

— Thomas Peterffy, on Wall Street

“It's all common sense. Hard work and common sense. That's my story.”

— Thomas Peterffy, on his success

“We are competing at milliseconds. And whether you can shave three milliseconds of your execution time... has absolutely no social value.”

— Thomas Peterffy, on high-frequency trading (NPR, 2012)

“This is a very poignant story about how the immigrant community survives. Everybody pulling tricks on each other.”

— Thomas Peterffy, on the immigrant experience

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Thomas Peterffy

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Thomas Peterffy

Founder and chairman of Interactive Brokers, one of the world's most efficient electronic brokerage firms.