Who Are the Top Forex Traders in the World?
All Forex traders typically share one ambition: to become successful. But are there any examples of traders who have been there and done it? And what can we learn from them? In this article, we will take a look at 5 top Forex traders, examine their stories and see what we can learn from them.
The information in this article is provided for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions.
What Are the Qualities of a Successful Trader?
Before we dive into our list of successful Forex traders, let’s take a look at some of the important qualities which the world’s top traders have in common.
- Knowledge: a strong knowledge of the financial markets and how they operate.
- Discipline: the ability to create a trading plan and stick to it.
- Patience: becoming successful does not happen overnight.
- Risk Management: understanding the potential risk of every trade and taking action to mitigate these risks where possible.
- Courage: the confidence to trust in their work and analysis.
- Adaptability: being able to adapt their approach to current market conditions.
Even with these characteristics, it is not guaranteed that traders will ultimately be successful. However, understanding and developing these skills may help you on your trading journey.
Whilst mistakes and, consequently, losses, are a common part of trading, another important thing is to make sure you learn from these mistakes in order to grow and develop as a Forex trader.
5 of the World’s Top Forex Traders
So, who are some of the most successful Forex traders in the world? In the following sections, we’ll take a look at the careers of 5 top Forex traders.
George Soros
We start our list of top Forex traders by examining one of the most well-known figures in trading - George Soros.
Soros sealed his status as one of the greatest Forex traders in the world on Black Wednesday, 16 September 1992, after he reportedly profited more than $1 billion short selling the British pound.
In the buildup to Black Wednesday, the value of the pound was falling close to the lower limit set by the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), in which the UK was participating at the time.
Soros amassed a huge short position against the pound, believing that efforts by the British government to prop up the currency’s value would ultimately fail. He was right. The UK eventually withdrew from the ERM, and its currency plummeted, earning Soros a reported $1 billion and the title of ‘the man who broke the Bank of England’.
Paul Tudor Jones
Paul Tudor Jones is a US hedge fund manager, who began his trading career trading cotton futures at the New York Cotton Exchange, a job he subsequently lost after falling asleep at his desk following a night of partying!
He subsequently became a commodities broker and went on to found his own firm, Tudor Investment Corporation, which trades and invests across a range of assets, including currencies, commodities and equities.
One of Jones’s greatest successes was accurately predicting and shorting the Black Monday crash in 1987. In the buildup to the crash, US markets had been on a bull run, but Jones believed they had become overextended.
Jones’s fund began buying put options on major indices, positioning itself for a market crash. On Black Monday, global equity markets plummeted, but Jones’s short positions paid off, tripling his money and earning an estimated $100 million.
Stanley Druckenmiller
The next on our list of top traders, Stanley Druckenmiller, worked alongside George Soros for over ten years, managing money for Soros’s successful Quantum Fund.
In addition to playing a part in Soros' well-known success on Black Wednesday, Druckenmiller established a record of impressive profits with his own firm, Duquesne Capital.
Druckenmiller has said that his trading philosophy for developing long-term profits is based on the idea of preserving capital whilst seeking “home runs”. His strategy emphasises a willingness to adapt to prevailing market conditions, maximising opportunities when right and minimising losses when wrong.
Bill Lipschutz
Amongst the Forex trading community, Bill Lipschutz is something of a legend, famous for his inspiring trading journey, which started while he was attending university in the 1970s.
Whilst studying, Lipschutz inherited $12,000 following the death of his grandmother. With this money, Lipschutz began trading and, remarkably, turned this modest sum into $250,000. However, thanks to one wrong decision, he lost everything!
For many people, that would have been enough to give up trading for good, but not for Lipschutz. He continued trading and, upon graduating, began work at Salomon Brothers, eventually joining their foreign exchange division. Between 1984 and 1990, he was the principal trader for the firm’s foreign exchange account.
Lipschutz story of recovering from such a devastating loss early in his career to become one of the most successful Forex traders serves as an inspiration for many aspiring traders.
Andy Krieger
The last entrant on our list of successful Forex traders is Andy Krieger.
Krieger graduated from the Wharton School of Business and, in 1986, joined the Bankers Trust, following a stint at Salomon Brothers. He impressed his firm’s management so much that they increased his trading limit to $700 million, fourteen times higher than the usual $50 million limit!
Like Paul Tudor Jones, one of Krieger’s defining moments came from the market crash known as Black Monday in 1987.
In the aftermath of the crash, he identified the New Zealand dollar as becoming overvalued, initiating a heavily leveraged short position against the currency. His short position was so large, that it supposedly exceeded the entire money supply of New Zealand at the time.
When the New Zealand dollar subsequently fell, Krieger successfully made $300 million for his firm.
Final Thoughts
Reading about top Forex traders and their historical successes might provide aspiring traders with inspiration and motivation, however, it is no substitute for a solid education of the financial markets.
Becoming a successful Forex trader requires a lot of hard work and, even then, it is by no means guaranteed. For beginners, a demo trading account can be a good place to learn and practise trading strategies before heading to the live markets.
Other Articles You Might Be Interested In:
- 10 Top Forex Trading Tips for Beginners
- The Forex Trading Sessions
- A Beginner’s Guide for Forex Traders
Frequently Asked Questions
How to become a successful trader?
There is no guaranteed pathway to becoming a successful trader. However, things such as education, patience, practise and risk management can help traders on their way.
Who is the most successful Forex trader?
This is somewhat of a subjective question, which depends on how you define success. However, George Soros is often regarded as one of the most successful Forex traders thanks to his exploits on Black Wednesday in 1992 in which he earned $1 billion shorting the British pound.
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