Laszlo Birinyi

Laszlo Birinyi is an investor, entrepreneur and the founder of Birinyi Associates, Inc. and Asset Management Arm.

Personal life

Laszlo Birinyi Jr. was born in Hungary but moved to Pennsylvania at the age of seven. In 1962, as a freshman, he came to Chapel Hill. Although he majored in History it was one of the university’s first computer classes that gave him the skills he needed to get a job as a computer programmer on Wall Street. Birinyi is married to Jill and the couple has two daughters: Natalie and Anna.

Employment history

Birinyi started his career in the investment industry as a trader. This then led to his development of the trading calendar. He then worked at Salomon Brothers in 1976 as an equity researcher and market analyst, later being promoted to head of Equity Market Analysis. In that position he constructed the Stock Week – a weekly commentary along with studies on fund flow, market structure, volatility etc. He was helped establish the Salomon-Russell International Index.

Birinyi Associates

Birinyi launched Birinyi Associates in 1989, following his departure from Salomon Brothers. While founder and director of the firm, he still worked for Deutsche Bank Securities as Global Trading Strategist from 1988 until 2002.

Through his work at Birinyi Associates, Inc., he established a stock market research firm that analyzes the psychology and history of the stock market and the actions of investors in order to predict stock trends.” He often makes contributions to Forbes (where he was also a columnist), Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, BusinessWeek and Bloomberg Personal Finance. He has appeared as a guest on CNBC and Bloomberg TV, and was also a panelist for Louis Rukeyser’s Wall $treet Week.

He is the author of The Master Trader: Birinyi's Secrets to Understanding the Market (2013, ISBN 978-1118774731) and The Equity Desk – a book about stock market trading.

Education

Birinyi has an MBA from the New York University Graduate School of Business and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Philanthropic efforts

In 2001, Birinyi launched the Laszlo Birinyi Sr. Distinguished Professorship in Hungarian Culture in honor of his father. This $1 million endowment was “the first Hungarian culture professorship in the South, and it distinguishes Carolina as one of the few places in the United States where students may work with an expert in Hungarian studies.”