making a killing

Utilizing his knowledge of Britain’s victory at the Battle of Waterloo, Nathan Rothschild was able to make a killing in Westiminster’s market.

He proceeded to the Stock Exchange and while generally his actions follow the idea that he “[used] his early knowledge of the victory [to buy] into the market in the certain knowledge that stocks would rise once victory was confirmed.”  

That is only stretching the surface of what really occurred, because this was not any normal investor, this was Nathan Rothschild. 

"Another man in his position would have sunk his work into consols [bank annuities], already weak because of Quatre Bras. [However], he did not invest. He sold."

Rothschild knows that Waterloo is lost. That message rippled through London. As a result of this message and rumor, other investors followed suit and consols/bonds plummeted even further.

Right before the message of victory reached Westminster, Nathan bought as many bonds as possible. After the great news broke, the value of the British bond soared. 

This engineered panic allowed Nathan to gain even greater a profit than previously. Not only did Nathan Rothschild leverage real communication to know the true outcome of the Battle of Waterloo, but also leveraged miscommunication and  among others to boast his potential earnings. This leads historians to conclude that “Nathan Rothschild cleaned up the Gilt market thanks to his rapid, reliable, and finely honed communications system that brought him news of Wellington’s victory ahead of anyone else in Westminster and the City”

Utilizing his knowledge of Britain’s victory at the Battle of Waterloo, Nathan Rothschild bought British government bonds, building extraordinary wealth through communication.