Once known for beating the S&P 500 index for 15 years as a fund manager of Legg Mason Value Trust and then losing about 90% of his net worth during the 2008-09 financial crisis due to his bet on stocks like Bear Stearns and AIG, American investor Bill Miller has managed to make a comeback and this time as a billionaire as his bets on Amazon and Bitcoin have had a startling impact on his fortune.
In an interview with journalist William Green for his new book ‘’Richer, Wiser, Happier: How the World’s Greatest Investors Win in Markets and Life’’ Miller shared his story of how he built a second fortune and became a billionaire, thanks primarily to his investments in Bitcoin and Amazon stock.
His value Trust lost 55% in 2008, and his assets under management fell from about $77 billion to about $20 billion. When he joined Legg Mason four decades ago, he says, “my net worth was negative, and I was making $39,000 a year.”
Miller told Green in the recent Barron’s interview that he supercharged his personal bet on Amazon during the financial crisis. The value investor’s stake in Amazon made around 83% of his personal portfolio last year. He thinks he’s now the single largest individual shareholder of Amazon “whose last name isn’t Bezos” – after Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott.
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