In all industries there are people credited to being the best.
If you think about the investment world, Franklin Graham and Warren Buffet are credited to be the best investors of all time. In American politics, there is a consensus that Abraham Lincoln was the best president of all time.
And what about fracking? The late Aubrey McClendon is credited to being the best fracker of all time, while in design, Steve Jobs was credited of being the best in his industry.
In trading, a number of traders are known worldwide for their skills. In this article, We will look at the five most famous forex traders of all time.
› Related: Forex Trading 101
#1 – George Soros
George Soros is the world’s best currency trader. Born in 1930, the Hungarian trader is known for his 1992 short trade on Great Britain Pound (GBP). He sold short $10 billion and netted more than a billion dollars. He is known as the trader who broke the bank of England.
Following his successful trade, the UK withdrew the currency from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in what is known as the Black Wednesday.
Though he has already closed his Quantum Fund, Soros remains one of the most successful man in the world. He is worth more than $25 billion. During the Brexit vote, Soros lost money by betting that Brexit would not happen.
At 91 years old, George Soros is still active in the financial market although his performance is not all that stellar. He mostly focuses on his philanthropic work through the Open Society Foundation.
Over the years, George has written about 15 books. Some of the best known books he has written are The Age of Fallibility, Soros on Soros, The alchemy of Finance, The new paradigm for financial markets, and Financial turmoil in Europe and the United States.
#2 – James Simmons
James Simmons is one of the most successful hedge fund managers in the world. We actually believe that James is the most successful hedge fund manager.
He runs a quantitative hedge fund known as Renaissance Technologies that employs statistic and physics experts. He is so successful such that in 2008 when most traders were having their worst year, he returned more than 80%.
Renaissance Technologies operates two main funds. One is public to public money while Magellan Fund is a closed-end fund. The Magellan fund employs complex mathematical calculations to find trading opportunities. Over the years, it has achieved an annualized growth rate of more than 20% per year.
While James Simmons has not written a book, you can read one by Gregory Zuckerman. In 2019, he published a book titled The man who solved the market. It is an interesting book that will teach you a lot about finance.
#3 – Stanley Druckenmiller
Stan Druckenmiller is a successful portfolio manager and one of the most featured forex traders of our time. He is a former trader for George Soros. He was involved in his 1992 bet against the pound. After serving for Quantum Fund for more than 20 years, he left to start his own fund, Duquesne Fund which has returned more than 20% annually.
He is also a widely sought out trader who appears in top financial events such as World Economic Forum (WEF) and Sohn Conference. When he speaks, investors listen!
He was featured in the successful book, The New Market Wizards in 1994. He suffered major setbacks after the 2008 financial crisis and closed his fund.
Stan Druckenmiller is a billionaire worth more than $3.1 billion and is still active in the financial market. He is a regular interviewee in many financial publications.
› Portfolio Construction Models
#4 – Bill Lipschutz
His is a true story of rags-to-riches-to-rags-to-riches story.
Bill Lipschutz is famous for turning a $12,000 investment to $250,000 and then losing it all. He lost his money following a single trading decision.
After this loss, Bill learned an important mistake on risk management. He then went back to school to earn an MBA.
After this, he joined Solomon Brothers and was instrumental in establishing the firm’s foreign exchange division. He was a hit. He used his previous experience to earn the company more than $300 million every year.
After this, he established Hathersage Capital Management which is now one of the most successful multi-asset management firm.
In 2015, it was one of the best performing funds.
› How to Start Trading Again After a Big Loss
While Bill has not written a book, he has been featured in several popular books. For example, he is one of the traders who were featured in The Mind of a Trader by Alpesg Patel.
#5 – Bruce Kovner
Bruce Kovner is one of the most successful hedge fund managers who keeps a low profile. Born in 1945, Bruce founded Caxton Associates when he was 32 years old.
He started trading by borrowing funds from his credit card. He bought soybean futures and made more than $20,000. Today, Caxton Fund is one of the most successful funds in the world with more than $14 billion in assets under management.
He retired from the firm in 2011 and left the firm in the hands of his co-founder. Today, Bruce spends most of his time in his charitable activities. He also sits in a number of boards.
In 2021, he listed his 22-acre California home for $160 million.
Why these traders matter
Interestingly, there are other regular traders who have consistently beaten Wall Street for many years. Therefore, this is a highly subjective list.
Still, as a day trader, you can learn a lot from these successful people. For one, you can see that most of them are self-made individuals who started their firms with little money.
Second, learning about them will help you realize that there is no perfect investor or trader. Besides, all of them have made some losses before. Who are you not to lose money?
Third, it will teach you some of the strategies they used to make money. You can then reciprocate these strategies in your day trading.
Summary
There are many day traders today. At Real Trading, we have seen many traders who have achieved a lot of success in the trading industry. In this article, we looked at five of the best known ones in Forex and some of the lessons to draw from them.
Forex Traders – Useful Links
- Discover how to improve your skills as a Forex Trader on Dailyfx
- Want to improve your forex trading skills? Read more on Investopedia
