Most currency traders prefer to stay out of the spotlight, but a handful has achieved worldwide celebrity by trading in the public eye. Throughout their lengthy careers, these well-known athletes have shattered the pattern. These are well-connected individuals who have had a significant effect on the financial services sector.
Top 10 Forex Brokers
Broker
Rating
Regulators
Min Deposit
Leverage
Website
Top 10 Forex Brokers
Broker
Rating
Min Deposit
Leverage
Some individuals still believe that making money via Forex trading is a pipe dream. However, the reality is that many successful traders have made millions and even billions of dollars from very tiny sums of cash. Each of them approaches forex trading from a different perspective and employs a different set of strategies to be successful.
These forex market players and top forex traders, on the other hand, have certain similar characteristics. To keep losses to a minimum, they all practice strict and successful trading discipline, never acting on impulse or emotion. They also dared to take advantage of market openings and profit handsomely as a result.
A trader is someone who executes financial market orders. This might be as a representative of financial organizations such as large banks, investment funds, hedge funds, or as an individual trader.
Exchange orders, such as buying or selling stocks, are placed in the trader’s own name, on behalf of customers, or on behalf of the financial institution or broker where the trader is employed. There are further classifications based on the assets traded: forex, shares, bonds, and commodities, for example.
Traders employed by financial institutions or brokers purchase and sell securities on behalf of their employer’s customers, not with their own funds. This implies that they get a wage as a trader rather than profit or loss on their actual trading.
In this instance, the trader takes a truly minimal risk in the market; the trader’s risk is covered by their client purchasing or selling financial assets. The trader’s clientele might range from individuals to businesses that lack their own trading area.
Individuals who trade on their accounts are risking their own money for a potential profit. These accounts are paid with the traders’ own money, and transactions are made using internet trading platforms.
While internet brokers provide leverage, the sums exchanged by home traders are far less than those handled by professionals. Because online trading is often conducted on the OTC (Over the Counter) market, traders’ performance in their own accounts is merely an approximation.
The most successful traders in the world are:
1. George Soros
2. Stanley Druckenmiller
3. Bruce Kovner
4. Bill Lipschutz
5. Andy Krieger
6. James Simmons
7. Joe Lewis
8. Paul Tudor Jones
9. Michael Marcus
10. Richard Dennis
11. Axel Merk
1. George Soros
Net Worth: US$8.6 billion (Soros Fund Management has over US$27 billion assets under management)
George Soros was born in 1930 and started his banking career in London with Singer & Friedlander after fleeing Nazi-occupied Hungary during WWII. He worked at several different financial businesses until founding Soros Fund Management in 1970. The company made over $40 billion in earnings during the past five decades.
He gained worldwide notoriety in 1992 as the trader who broke the Bank of England, pocketing a $1 billion profit by short-selling an estimated $10 billion in British pound sterling (GBP). In 1990 the United Kingdom became a part of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). The rules involved pegged the British pound to the German Mark at a 2.95 level.
It is worth mentioning, however, that this system did allow for some degree of variability. According to the regulations, the GBP/DEM exchange rate may deviate by up to 6% in each direction from the 2.95 level. This indicates that the range’s low point was at the 2.773 level.
Subsequently, the British government assumed the responsibility of pursuing such an economical and monetary forex trading strategy to keep the GBP/DEM exchange rate within the range.
Following Germany’s reunification, the German Bundesbank confronted the difficulty of rising inflation rates. Subsequently, German officials began hiking interest rates in response to the overall price rise. Eventually, this approach achieved its objective. It did, however, have some unforeseen repercussions. The German mark began to appreciate against several of its peers, most notably the pound.
At the time, the Bank of England was not independent, and the British government-dictated interest rate choices. Interest rates in the UK were already high at the time, precipitating a collapse in the property market and the insolvency of numerous enterprises.
Given these circumstances, it is unsurprising that the British government was hesitant to raise rates further to align with the German Bundesbank’s objectives.
This is precisely where George Soros’s Quantum fund comes into play. Soros saw an excellent trading opportunity when he realized the pound was overpriced and the GBP/DEM peg was very unsustainable considering the market conditions.
On Sept. 16, 1992, the United Kingdom withdrew its currency from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism owing to its failure to maintain the requisite trading band because of Soros’ move, establishing a day in history known as Black Wednesday.
This spectacular transaction was a trading career highlight and solidified his status as one of the greatest traders of all time. Soros is now one of the world’s 200 richest people.
2. Stanley Druckenmiller
Net Worth: US$6.8 billion
Possessing the proper attitude and leading a successful Forex trader lifestyle might influence the result you are attempting to reach. Stanley Druckenmiller exemplifies how growing up in a suburban part of the nation makes little difference when a trader has a proven method to use.
He oversaw George Soros’s money management, which had the largest influence on his financial success. His $4.6 billion net worth and years of expertise as a top hedge fund manager have enabled him to manage money via a family office without taking on additional obligations while preserving his standing as one of the world’s wealthiest Forex traders.
Stanley Druckenmiller spent a decade with the Quantum fund and considered George Soros to be one of his teachers. After resigning from his previous position, he founded his own hedge fund, dubbed ‘Duquesne Capital.’
The fund was highly successful and apart from engaging in Soros’ well-known Black Wednesday deal, Mr. Druckenmiller had an outstanding track record of double-digit gains year after year with Duquesne before his retirement. Druckenmiller is believed to have a net worth of more than $2 billion.
According to Druckenmiller, his trading method for generating long-term returns is based on the concept of trading capital preservation. He seeks gains aggressively during periods when his transactions are profitable. It is less critical to be correct or incorrect with this method. Timing is critical in this instance.
Rather than that, it emphasizes the need to capitalize on chances when you are correct and mitigate harm when you are incorrect.
3. Bruce Kovner
Net Worth: US$6.2 billion
Bruce Kovner’s case is fascinating. Even today, there are still many individuals who think that to be a good FX trader, one must be born into a wealthy family or the at least have had a particular training in finance. However, none of those descriptions applied to Kovner.
To put it another way: Bruce Kovner was 32 years old when he made his first deal in 1977. He was born in Brooklyn in 1945. He bought soybean futures contracts with the use of a personal credit card and ended up making a profit of $20,000 in the process. His following employment at Commodities Corporation, which earned him millions in earnings, earned him an excellent reputation within the sector.
Since its inception in 1983, Caxton Alternative Management has grown into one of the largest and most successful hedge funds in the world, with assets exceeding $12 billion. Commodity and currency earnings and management fees from the fund made the secretive Kovner, who retired in 2011, one of the largest players in the FX market.
Bruce did not place his first Forex transaction for more than three decades. When you consider that he began his career as a cab driver before becoming a top forex trader and a multi-billionaire, you can see that anybody can achieve their ambitions. Things will only happen if you put in the time and effort.
4. Bill Lipschutz
Net Worth:
In the late 1970s, while still a student at Cornell University, Bill Lipschutz began trading. With a modest inheritance from his grandmother of $12k, Bill Lipschutz got his start in trading and went on to amass a fortune.
Although he made a bad trade, he learned a valuable lesson about risk management and took it with him throughout his career. He started working with Salomon Brothers in 1982 when he was pursuing his M.B.A. degree.
Although Bill Lipschutz had no prior expertise in currency markets, he made hundreds of millions of dollars at Salomon Brothers’ foreign exchange department in the 1980s. Mr. Lipschutz, who has been dubbed the Sultan of Currencies, says that the foreign exchange market is a highly psychological one.
The Sultan, like many other great Forex traders, thinks that market perceptions impact price behavior just as much as pure facts.
When it comes to being a great Forex trader, Lipschutz agrees with Stanley Druckenmiller’s opinion that your success is not contingent on being correct, and, often, it is. According to Lipschutz, traders need to figure out how to generate money even if they are correct just 20% to 30% of the time.
5. Andy Krieger
Net Worth: Unknown
It is safe to say that Andrew is one of the world’s most successful Forex traders. The currency rallied against the dollar after the so-called Black Monday disaster piqued his interest as a 32-year-old entrepreneur. Krieger had a golden chance to benefit from the situation.
He has made hundreds of millions of dollars by taking a short position against the New Zealand dollar, which is more than the country’s whole supply. After graduating from the Wharton School of Business, Kreiger worked at Salomon Brothers before joining Bankers Trust in 1986.
One of the most aggressive and well-known traders at the time, he impressed the top management so much that he was given a trading limit of $700 million instead of the typical $50 million.
Immediately after the October 1987 meltdown, when most markets plummeted by at least 20%, Kreiger determined that the New Zealand currency was overvalued. He used the leverage of 400:1 to short the currency, which was much higher than the currency’s real circulating liquidity.
Krieger’s firm made $300 million in a matter of hours when the currency shifted 5% against the US dollar.
6. James Simmons
Net Worth: US$24.4 billion
Hedge fund manager James Simmons is regarded as one of the best in the business. Today, James is one of the most successful hedge fund managers globally and in addition, the work of Simons on pattern recognition is well-known.
By establishing a theoretical framework for combining geometry and topology with quantum field theory, he helped to construct the Chern–Simons form (together with Shiing-Shen Chern).
The Simons Foundation was established in 1994 by Simons and his wife to encourage mathematics and basic scientific research. One of Berkeley’s most generous philanthropists, he founded the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing in 2012 and sits on the board of trustees of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute at Berkeley.
He is the head of Renaissance Technologies, a quantitative hedge fund that employs statisticians and physicists. He is so good that he returned more than 80% in 2008, while other traders were suffering their worst year.
There are two primary funds operated by Renaissance Technologies, while Magellan Fund, on the other hand, is a closed-end fund. To identify trading opportunities, the Magellan fund makes use of sophisticated mathematical models. It has grown at a pace of more than 20% every year throughout the years.
7. Joe Lewis
Net Worth: US$4.9 billion
Joe Lewis was born Joseph C. Lewis in February 1937 in the United Kingdom. He is a businessperson and investor. Lewis dropped out of school at the age of 15 to help his father in managing their West End catering business, Tavistock.
It was a success in its early years when it was marketed to American tourists, and he also owned the Hanover Grand West End club, which provided Robert Earl with his first job. After successfully running and eventually selling his father’s firm, traveling to the Bahamas was the only way to maximize the prospective profits from impending Forex trading.
Joe Lewis is one of the greatest Forex traders to follow because of his perseverance throughout his life, his in-depth understanding of the Forex specialty, his sizable forex net worth, and his position as an investor in prominent real estate, restaurants, and resort companies. Joe Lewis is the owner of the Tavistock Group, which has over 200 assets in 13 countries.
Lewis owns Premier League soccer club Tottenham Hotspur and has an interest in UK pub operator Mitchells & Butlers via Tavistock.
8. Paul Tudor Jones
Net Worth: US$7.3 billion
Jones graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in Economics in 1976. He began his work on the trading floor as a clerk. Tudor Jones declined an offer to attend Harvard Business School and instead worked as a commodities trader on the New York Stock Exchange.
He then established Tudor Investment Corporation. Paul Tudor Jones rose to prominence following the 1987 stock market meltdown. He maintained substantial short bets in the market at the time and earned a tremendous 62% return on those assets after the crisis.
He is also a very successful Forex trader. Indeed, he built huge bets against the Japanese yen in 2013. Jones earned a 20% return on investment and significantly increased his net worth when the JPY lost ground versus other major currencies.
According to him, one of the primary keys to success as a trader is an insatiable need for knowledge and information.
9. Michael Marcus
Net Worth: US$1.5 million
In terms of Forex trading, Michael Marcus is one of the finest in the world. Since then, Michael’s childhood ambitions have come to fruition thanks to Ed Seykota. He was able to absorb a great deal of knowledge about Ed’s accomplishment in building a software company that focused on the trading industry.
Marcus was able to outperform one of the best Forex traders in the world because he had the right mentors. In less than ten years, he went from $30,000 to close to $100 million as a commodities trader because he learned the ropes quickly.
In the early days of the Commodities Corporation Company, he was one of the founding members. During Reagan’s presidency in 1980, he made a successful manoeuvre by purchasing $300 billion in German marks at a time when the DEM was undervalued.
From 1985 through 1987, the German mark appreciated significantly against the US dollar, resulting in millions of dollars in profits for Marcus.
10. Richard Dennis
Net Worth: US$14 million
Richard J. Dennis, a commodities trader dubbed the “Prince of the Pit” at one point, was born in Chicago in January 1949.
Dennis began his career as an order runner on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s trading floor at the age of 17. He started trading for his own account a few years later at the MidAmerican Commodity Exchange, an entry-level floor that transacted “mini” contracts.
To get around a law requiring dealers to be at least twenty-one years old, he recruited his father to act as his runner and trade in his place in the pit. Dennis received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from DePaul University and then accepted a scholarship to attend Tulane University for doctoral studies in philosophy.
He then changed his mind and returned to trading. He borrowed $1,600 in the early 1970s and earned $350 million in six years.
Dennis gained by purchasing consecutive weekly and monthly highs in the growing inflationary markets of the 1970s, a period marked by recurring crop failures and the 1972 “Great Russian Grain Robbery,” in which Soviet Union operatives surreptitiously acquired 30% of the US wheat harvest in a matter of weeks.
In contrast to the great majority of floor traders, who scalped transactions throughout the trading day, Dennis maintained positions for extended periods—riding out short-term swings and retaining holdings over the intermediate-term.
Dennis often stacked his positions. He purchased a full membership at the more costly Chicago Board of Trade in the late 1970s and established an office above to trade other markets.
Dennis thought that trading success could be taught. To resolve an argument with William Eckhardt, a close friend and fellow dealer, Dennis formed two groups, the first in December 1983 and the second in December 1984, each consisting of 21 men and two women.
Dennis instructed this group, dubbed Turtles, a basic trend-following technique in only two weeks. He taught them to trade a variety of commodities, currencies, and bond markets, buying when prices climbed above their previous range and selling when prices dropped below their recent range.
They were trained to reduce position sizes during losing times and to pyramid aggressively—up to a third or half of total exposure, even though only 24% of total trading capital would be exposed at any one moment.
This sort of trading technique will yield losses during periods of range-bound trading, which may last months at a time, and gains during moments of significant market price movements. In 1987, a futures trading fund he was managing lost a lot of money, so he decided to take a long break from trading.
He acquired the fundamentals of trading while working as an order runner for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and subsequently enhanced his skills.
He has mentored hundreds of brokers from all over the globe. Considering that he has also succeeded in uniting individuals who are engaged in trading to achieve a certain financial objective. It took them around four months to surpass $100 million in yearly sales.
11. Axel Merk
Net Worth:
Merk Investments’ president and chief investment officer, Axel Merk, oversees the Merk Funds. The fact that some of the greatest forex traders on our list have already retired from the market means that traders these days are less likely to hear their thoughts on the most recent currency moves.
Merk Investments was founded in 1994 when he pooled all his assets into an investment. His company relocated to the United States in California in 2001. To capitalize on the long-term Forex patterns, the ‘hard currency fund’ was formed.
For Axel Merk, who continues to actively administer the ‘Merk Investments’ and often remarks on market developments, this is not the case. Merk was born and raised in the Swiss Alps. When he was in college, he began managing the investments of his friends.
Throughout his career, he consistently had a high percentage of success in predicting the direction of the market. Regarding the Euro’s value, for example, he projected that it would climb significantly from late 2012 to early 2014. The price of gold is also expected to skyrocket during the next two years, according to him.
A specialist in global economics, monetary policy, and foreign investment is Merk’s area of expertise. He is an expert in currencies, especially gold, and a pioneer in the use of strategic currency investment to achieve diversification and portable alpha.
Merk positioned his customers in 2005 to exit the real estate market and shield them from a weakening dollar by investing in gold and hard currencies like the Swiss franc. Early on in 2007, he correctly predicted that a worldwide credit contraction would be triggered by a sharp rise in volatility.
The real interest rate hypothesis, which he strongly supports, is one of the primary determinants of changes in the Forex exchange rate. Budget shortfalls, according to Merk, might have a significant long-term influence on the Forex market.
Who is the richest forex trader?
George Soros. He has a net worth of $8.6 billion and while this is not the highest, Soros Fund Management has over US$27 billion assets under management, which adds to his overall wealth.
When Soros was in high school, he started trading. One of the most important factors in his success was his ability to take highly leveraged positions depending on the movement of currency rates.
Who is the best forex trader?
George Soros is the best forex trader in the history of the foreign exchange market.
Many of George Soros’s ventures and transactions have been noteworthy. One of the most well-known investors in the financial industry, he is recognized for making large currency wagers on a worldwide scale.
What is the best forex trading tips to become a successful forex trader?
If you want to become a good forex trader, you must first develop your trading abilities. This is accomplished mostly via consistent practice and discipline. Additionally, traders should always do a thorough technical analysis and fundamental analysis of each deal.
This enables them to comprehend the motivations behind their deals and to develop the ability to keep a calm, unaffected exterior. This is critical since greed and fear may have a significant impact on your transactions. This is a critical component that all traders should be able to control.
However, other talents help forex traders succeed, and here are six of them:
- Do not take it personal
- Understand Price Action Signals
- Formulate a balanced strategy
- Use the Fibonacci Trading Strategy
- Effective Risk Management
- Stay updated on Market News
1. Do not take it personally: While forex trading is sometimes seen as one of the simplest methods to gain money, it is not without risk. The most critical characteristic that determines whether a forex trader succeeds or fails is their capacity to stay unaffected by losses.
While losing money is infuriating, a trader’s success is contingent upon their capacity to bear that loss. By not taking things personally and maintaining your composure, you will save yourself a great deal of sorrow and problems. Additionally, this one-of-a-kind talent enables you to see more clearly, allowing you to prevent future losses.
2. Understand Price Action Signals: A critical component of a forex trader’s success is their ability to use price action cues. To develop this talent, traders must first master the fundamental tactics. You will need to monitor price reactions and trends.
The ideal approach to develop this ability is to exercise all your newly learned information in demo trading, which trading professionals recommend since this practice allows you to learn from your errors without causing any actual harm.
3. Formulate a balanced strategy: A random and erratic technique is not a profitable forex trader’s trading plan, and it will not function in this sector. Rather than that, take the time to carefully craft a balanced and comprehensive trading plan and a comprehensive plan of action.
By doing so, you might earn considerable gains even after a transaction ends in a loss. Your technique should enable you to identify trades in any market circumstance. However, for this to be a long-term success, you need to get used to basing your trading ideas on conservative ways.
4. Use the Fibonacci Trading Strategy: This time-tested approach, known as the Fibonacci trading strategy, is very popular among expert traders. It allows small-scale traders to achieve big gains while limiting their losses. That is why a good trader should add this technique into their arsenal of tactics.
You will need to examine a few factors while using the trend-trading strategy. You should want to concentrate on the retracement’s terminus since this increases your trading prospects. With that stated, strive to have a thorough understanding of the Fibonacci trading method.
5. Effective Risk Management: A large part of your performance is determined by your ability to manage risk keep a balanced risk, and reward ratio, which includes avoiding the trap of trading the market aggressively. Often, it is the aggressiveness that results in massive losses, regardless of how adept you are at reading the market, developing a trading plan, and trading.
For some, automating the trading process might help reduce the danger of overreaction. At the forefront of each transaction, you should have the 2% risk management strategy in mind. This implies that you should never risk more than 2% on a single trade.
6. Stay updated on Market News: The news has a significant impact on the currency trading game. As a result, you should learn to read the daily broadcasts and make it a point to stay current on global events. Nonetheless, it is critical to do a thorough technical analysis in conjunction with current events and news updates.
To do so effectively, you need to consider the larger picture, taking notice of how trade and pricing respond to various market movements.
Table of Contents
