David Tepper was born in 1957 and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a bachelor's degree and received a master's degree in business administration (MBA) from Carnegie Mellon University in 1982. In his early career on Wall Street, he worked at Equibank, Republic Steel's Treasury, and Goldman Sachs, where he served as the head of high-yield debt trading and accumulated deep market experience.

He left Goldman Sachs in 1993 to found his own firm, Appaloosa Management, and became famous for his bold buying of bank stocks after the 2009 financial crisis, earning more than $4 billion in profits in just one year.

🏆 Main achievements

• Appaloosa Management's assets under management once exceeded $16 billion

• In 2009, he made a profit of $4 billion and was named "Wall Street's King of Transaction of the Year"

• Selected for many times on the Forbes Global Billionaires List

• In 2018, he acquired the NFL Carolina Panthers and became the owner of a professional football team.

• Donated more than $125 million to Carnegie Mellon University, becoming the largest donor in the school's history

💡 Investment philosophy

David Tepper's investment philosophy is centered on "realism + contrarian thinking". He emphasizes the opportunities brought by market expectation gaps and sentiment mismatches, and is good at taking decisive actions when others are afraid. His most famous motto is: "The market will always rebound. As long as the world does not end, the stock market will not return to zero."

His investment strategies include:

• Counter-cyclical buying: heavy holdings of discounted quality assets during economic crises

• Fundamental analysis: focus on the company's financial stability and industry status

• Aggressive but risk-controlled: Enter the market boldly but focus on position management and stop loss

• Don’t follow blindly: think independently and often open positions when the market is unanimously bearish

✅ Summary

David Tepper is one of the few financial legends who rose in a bear market. He has proved with his actual performance that in the most chaotic market environment, as long as you insist on independent thinking and reasonable risk control, you can create amazing wealth. He is not only prominent in the investment world, but also widely respected in the social field through sports and charity. Tepper's life and investment story is a model for all financial practitioners and investors to think deeply and learn from.