Self-made woman Geraldine Weiss is considered one of the most successful women in the male-dominated investment industry. While her path to success has faced multiple challenges, none were great enough to prevent her from becoming a trading legend.
Born in San Francisco in 1926, she graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1945 with a degree in business and finance.
Weiss became interested in investing in the 1960s and started to learn as much as possible by taking night courses and reading every book on the subject.
In 1962, she took her first jump into the stock market—but unfortunately wasn’t offered any suitable jobs due to sexism, a common attitude at that time. She would always be redirected to the secretarial pool, even with her degree in hand.
Therefore, in 1966, she decided to set up her own investment newsletter called Investment Quarterly Trends (IQT), thus becoming the first woman to start an investment advisory service and publish a widely distributed newsletter. By doing so, she successfully entered the exclusively male-dominated sector—although she had to mask her gender by signing with “G.”
It was not until she began appearing on the talk show "Wall Street Week" in 1977 that Weiss revealed herself. At that time, subscribers were making so much money that they didn’t mind that a woman was behind the newsletter. Her popularity subsequently soared.
Over the years, she began appearing more regularly on talk shows, in illustrious finance publications, and at investor conferences. She also wrote several books exploring her investment expertise.
Nicknamed “the Grande Dame of Dividends” or the “Dividend Detective,'' Weiss researched and selected the best blue-chip stocks promising reliable dividends.
“[Paying dividends] is perhaps the most sacred of all corporate financial components, and the measure of value we hold in the highest regard,” she explained in her book "Dividends Don’t Lie."
After more than three decades analyzing and writing for IQT, she eventually retired and handed off editorial duties in 2002 while still remaining involved in the overall business strategy.
In any case, although gender discrimination is still present in the financial world, Weiss' career trajectory and wealth of experience have set an unreplicable precedent and continue to inspire other strong women to break away from prejudice.