When Donald Trump announced Friday that hedge fund manager Scott Bessent was his pick for Treasury secretary, there was a massive sigh of relief from the markets, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury falling sharply (a sign that investors think Bessent will help keep inflation cool) and the stock market getting a little bump.

While little has been reported about his wealth, a look at Bessent's winning bets while working in finance offer some insight into how me made his fortune.

Bessent (pictured), who campaigned for Trump's election and was a donor to his campaign, has expertise on making the right calls on the world economy.

Investor Scott Bessent has spent his career in finance, working for macro investment billionaire George Soros and noted short seller Jim Chanos, as well as running his own hedge fund. Bessent will take his investing knowledge down a rarefied career path that only a few other prominent Wall Street luminaries have followed: running the U.

Now is one of the stronger times of the year for stocks. pic.twitter.com/Hh4kA7xx6V — Ryan Detrick, CMT (@RyanDetrick) November 26, 2024 The stock market rallied on Monday as investors reacted positively to President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Scott Bessent for Treasury Secretary.

In 1992, Bessent helped Soros pull off the firm’s greatest trade: shorting the British pound. The British government was part of the European Union at the time, and its central bank—the Bank of England—had committed to keeping the value of the pound within a strict range alongside other European currencies,

President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for U.S. Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, will prioritize delivering on election tax cut pledges, he told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published on Sunday.

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Treasury Secretary operates a hedge fund that reaped a massive windfall two years ago — even as global markets sagged.