People who have followed my work for some time know about Hetty Green. She was one of the greatest traders of the early twentieth century and, in my opinion, one of the most misunderstood figures in American financial history. If you have heard of her, you may recall her nickname, the Witch of Wall Street.
When Hetty Green died in 1916, her estate was estimated between $100 million and $200 million. In today’s terms, that would be roughly $2.25 billion to $4.5 billion. She was almost certainly the richest woman in the world at the time, and she built that fortune entirely through her own skill and discipline.
When American Heritage magazine published a list of the richest Americans in history in 1998, Hetty ranked number 36. She was the only woman on the list. As one biographer put it, her only liability was her husband.
Hetty traded stocks, bonds, and real estate. She looked for value anywhere she could find it. A contrarian investor before the term existed, she bought when others were fearful and sold when they were greedy. She built her fortune on the same principles that Benjamin Graham would later formalize and that Warren Buffett would popularize.
One reason Hetty has faded from history is that she never took steps to preserve her name. When she died, she passed her fortune to her children, and when her daughter died in 1951, the Green family wealth was distributed among colleges, churches, hospitals, and charities. Unlike Ford or Rockefeller, Hetty never founded an institution to carry her name. But another reason that Hetty has mostly disappeared from the annals of history is that her eccentricities often overshadowed her achievements.
Instead of being remembered as one of the greatest investors of her time, she is often remembered for her thrift. Stories circulated that she wore the same black dress until it wore out or that she avoided paying taxes by moving between small apartments in New Jersey and New York. Some accounts even accused her of neglecting her son’s medical care, though those stories were exaggerated over time and are not supported by reliable evidence.
What we should remember about Hetty Green is her mind. She was active during an era of robber barons and insider manipulation, yet she was never accused of wrongdoing. She made her fortune by thinking clearly and acting rationally when others could not.
Her approach to investing was simple and direct: “There is no great secret in fortune making,” she said in an interview published in National Magazine in 1905. “All you have to do is buy cheap and sell dear, act with thrift and shrewdness and then be persistent.”
Hetty also kept cash ready for times of crisis. During the Panic of 1907, when credit markets froze, Hetty loaned the City of New York more than one million dollars, secured by short-term bonds. Years later, she explained, “When the crash came, I had the money, and I was one of the very few who really had it. The others had their securities and their values. I had the cash and they had to come to me in droves.”
Hetty was clear about her trading philosophy. “I never buy anything just to hold it,” she said. “There is a price on everything I have. When that price is offered, I sell.”
That mindset resonates with me. Like Hetty, I believe discipline and patience are the foundation of successful trading. My Income Trader Volatility system is built on the same principle she practiced more than a century ago—measuring emotion when others act on it.
Where Hetty observed fear in the faces of bankers, I observe it in volatility data. When fear peaks, volatility spikes. When that fear fades, the data confirms it long before the crowd recognizes it. That is often when opportunity begins.
Hetty Green’s success was not built on luck or leverage. It came from emotional control, rational judgment, and readiness. She understood that panic always burns itself out and that the calm investor waiting with cash in hand would eventually be rewarded.
The lesson she left behind is timeless. Markets change, but human nature does not. Whether it was 1907 or today, the investors who measure emotion instead of joining it will always have the edge.
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