Introduction
Thomas Peterffy is an incredible entrepreneurial success story. A Hungarian immigrant, Thomas arrived in the United States at age 25 with only a pocketful of cash and his magna cum laude degree in engineering. Since then, he has gone on to become one of the most successful businessmen ever seen – taking his company Interactive Brokers all the way to the top of Wall Street.
His passion for technology has continuously driven progress within the industry. In addition to Interactive Brokers, he is also the inventor of cutting-edge trading technology that makes stock trading accessible for everyone.
Early Life
Born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1944 as the only son of a well-educated family, Thomas’ early life was disrupted when Soviet forces invaded his homeland. After fleeing to Vienna, he eventually ended up in the United States at the age of twenty-one with only four hundred dollars to his name and an unbridled determination to succeed.
With limited English speaking skills, it could have been expected that the odds against him would be impossible; yet through hard work and drive, Thomas quickly established a computer programmer career and later became one of America’s richest self-made billionaires!
Net Worth
Thomas Peterffy is a billionaire renowned for his success in the financial industry. Peterffy’s incredible net worth is estimated at an enormous $27 billion. He amassed this fortune through hard work and by creating a powerful brokerage firm, Interactive Brokers Group (IBG).
IBG was created in 1977, and from just a few hundred thousand dollars in assets, it has grown exponentially to manage several trillion dollars of customer accounts today. Outside of business, Peterffy sits on the board of directors for Coca-Cola and The Cato Institute for Liberty and Prosperity, working to enhance the public good even further.
Trivia
Thomas Peterffy was working as an architectural draftsman after he emigrated to the United States. However, he became a computer programmer after that. Also, he attained his success after leaving his designing financial modeling software career he purchased a seat on the American Stock Exchange. Thus, Thomas Peterffy got a huge income from air time on networks like CNBC, CNN, and Bloomberg.
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