Who are the top forex traders and what’s their story?

Forex attracts many investors as it seems an easy way to make money. There are lots of success stories that make trading even more desirable. However, many traders lose money instead of making any. In order to be successful in any field, it’s important to learn about the most successful people and try to understand what they are doing right. In addition to offering valuable lessons, the best fx traders can become a source of inspiration for you.

While trading currencies might seem easy at first glance, you will learn that it’s quite challenging and all of the professional FX traders are hard workers. In this article we’ll show you the most successful Forex traders and their stories to get inspired. They all are very different from one another, which can tell you that there’s no single way to make money in the FX market.

The greatest Forex traders

All of them work hard to make trading work. What’s more, they have the ability to manage large sums of money. And the money is mostly investments made by various people. Managing other people’s money puts a lot of pressure and responsibility on wealth management companies. In the world of investing, to make billions of dollars, you need billions of dollars under management. Let’s see some of the most famous forex traders and their stories that made them the richest Forex traders.

George Soros

As of 2022, George Soros’ net worth is estimated at 6.7 Billion US Dollars according to Forbes. George Soros undoubtedly deserves to be among the top forex traders’ list. George became famous by betting against the British Pound in 1992. Which has made George Soros 1 billion US Dollars richer. The day is known as Black Wednesday. It was a brave move by Soros as he was fighting against the central bank of Britain. For some, George Soros is a hero and for others, he’s a Villain. The aftermath of his actions has thrown the British economy into a recession.

Let’s find out exactly what happened on the Black Wednesday and how George managed to make his billion. Prior to the Black Wednesday, the central bank of England started semi-pegging the British Pound. When Great Britain joined the Exchange Rate Mechanism that was meant to make the national currency more stable, the rate was set to 2.95 Deutsche Marks per British Pound. In case the currency pair value was increased or decreased by 6%, the British central bank’s job was to intervene by selling or buying the pair depending on the situation to make currency valuation under predetermined maximum and minimum levels. The problem was that the British economy was not in a great condition. The country was suffering from high inflation and the interest rates were 13%. Traders took advantage of the situation and started shorting the British Pound against the Deutsche Mark. Among the short sellers, George Soros was the biggest. He shorted 10 Billion dollars worth of British pounds. In the process, the central bank of England has lost a lot of money. The semi-peg system became a failure and the British economy went into recession.

People who hate Soros for making a lot of money at the expense of the British economy have good grounds. For those who think that George Soros is a hero, believe that the old semi-pegg system was a mistake and it’s great that it was destroyed. No matter how we look at the event, there’s no doubt that the move was incredibly brave.

James Simmons

James Simmons is a famous and influential FX trader and mathematician. Jim founded a hedge fund Renaissance Technologies in 1982. His fund has revolutionized trading by algorithmic trading. Jim doesn’t have financial education and his mathematical skills are not the main factor to his success either. The biggest thing that made Mr. Simmons is so successful that he managed to gather the best team of professionals around him. His trading strategies are based on mathematical probabilities, technical analysis, and price patterns rather than human analysts. As of 2022, Jim Simmons’ net worth is estimated at 28.1 Billion US dollars. Jim is among the richest Forex traders globally.

Stan Druckenmiller

As of 2022, Stanley Freeman Druckenmiller’s net worth is estimated at 6.4 Billion US Dollars by Forbes. Stan is an American investor, hedge fund manager and philanthropist. He made his fortune by working for George Soros as a portfolio manager. In 1981, Stan Druckenmiller founded his own company called Duquesne Capital Management. His approach to trading is to focus on certain assets and watch central banks decisions carefully. His advice to other traders is not to place their investments in many baskets. The key for success for him is to select single assets and invest in them with great attention to details.

Bruce Kovner

As of 2022, Bruce Kovner’s net worth is estimated at 6.6 Billion US Dollars by Forbes. Currently Bruce Kovner is a Chairman and founder of CAM Capital. Mr. Kovner founded his first company, Caxton Associates in 1983. Kovner’s first trade was done by funds that were borrowed using his credit card. He made 20,000 USD in profits with just 3,000 US Dollars. After the successful trade, his interest in investing only grew.

Mr. Kovner’s trading strategies are based on simplification. The more things are observed the less precise the predictions are as everything changes in the process. Bruce Kovner became famous for yearly average rate of return of 87% during 1978 – 1987, when he was working in a global macro hedge fund Caxton Associates. The amazing rate of return has earned him a Market Wizard name among financial traders.

Paul Tudor Jones

As of 2022, Paul Tudor Jones’ net worth is estimated at 7.5 Billion US Dollars by Forbes. Mr. Paul is the CEO of Tudor Investment Corporation. The company was founded by himself on November 13, 1980. Currently the company has 13 billion US dollars under management.

Paul Tudor Jones is famous for making great trade decisions on currency valuation. He bases his decisions on interest rate announcements. Mr.Tudor tries to minimize his losses by decreasing positions when a trade goes against prediction and increasing trading size when a trade goes in his favor.

What does it take to be a successful Forex trader?

All of the top successful traders that we’ve mentioned above have made billions of dollars. What can we learn from their trading? Can we become billionaires as well? There are many kinds of traders, some base their predictions on mathematical probabilities and chart patterns. Others spend the majority of their resources analyzing fundamentals such as interest rate decisions. However, all of the successful traders and hedge fund managers have certain things in common. They all know how to trade profitably and they have large capital under management.

To make a lot of money by trading currency pairs, you need to have a large amount of money under management. And for investors to have trust in your trading, you need to have a great trading strategy.

Demonstrating that your trading system works is highly important for investors. The investors care less about how much return you made at the end of the day. The first and foremost thing that is important for investors is how stable and reliable your strategies are. The lower the risks the better. Every trading strategy experiences periods of drawdowns, the way you manage your drawdowns is also very important.

You don’t need to be a mathematician or have financial education to make money trading. As in the case of James Simmons, if you have enough capital, you can gather a team of professional FX traders that will increase your wealth.

You don’t need to become a billionaire to be considered a success

All of the traders that were mentioned in this article are extreme cases of success. There’s no need to start a hedge fund if your goal is to make trading an additional source of income for yourself and your family.

It’s more difficult to manage 100 million Dollars than it is to manage 10,000 USD. It is important to have a trading strategy. The strategy can be based on technicals, fundamentals, or both. The most important in profitable trading is to have an edge and be able to control your emotions to let that edge produce results. Most hedge funds that make billions are great at managing their drawdowns. The best traders limit their losses when a trade goes against their predictions and increase positions when they are correct.

Developing a trading strategy that produces results takes dedication, time, and resources. A great trading plan should include the answers to the questions on when to trade, what to trade, and how to trade. Your trading plan should suit your personality.

The main takeaways

To sum everything up, there are various types of successful Forex traders. Some of them base their analysis on mathematical probabilities, algorithms and chart patterns while others study fundamentals. The most famous and the richest Forex traders such as: George Soros, James (Jim) Simmons, Stan Druckenmiller, Bill Lipschutz, Bruce Kovner, Paul Tudor Jones and Joe Lewis have made their billions by creating wealth management funds. And therefore, it’s easy to assume that to make a lot of money, you need to invest a lot of money. All successful traders have one thing in common and that’s being hard working. If you believe that Forex is an easy way to make money, you should change your belief system. To be a successful trader, you don’t need to make billions of dollars. Made traders get inspiration from the biggest forex traders and turn trading to an additional source of income for themselves and their family members.

FAQs on top forex traders

Who is the top forex trader?

There is a large number of successful Forex traders. George Soros is the most famous trader among them. In 1992, George made $1 billion by betting against the British Pound. In addition, there are very famous and successful Forex traders such as: James (Jim) Simmons, Stan Druckenmiller, Bill Lipschutz, Bruce Kovner, Paul Tudor Jones and Joe Lewis.

Who got rich off forex?

There are many traders that got rich by trading currencies. Bruce Kovner in particular is worth mentioning. His first trade was in a futures contract that made him 20,000 US Dollars. The contract was made using borrowed capital from his credit card. Later he founded Caxton Associates hedge fund and made billions of dollars trading various asset types, mainly currency pairs.

How much do top forex traders make?

It depends on how skilled a trader is and how much capital he has under management. No matter how great your trading strategies are, you need money to make money. In addition, there are all sorts of traders such as institutional, retail, intraday, swing traders, copy traders, etc. All of them have different results. What’s more, many traders lose money instead of making any. In short, it’s impossible to answer this question generally as there are so many variables and different results amongst Forex traders.

How can I make billions of dollars trading Forex?

To make billions, you need to have billions of dollars under management. All of the biggest forex traders have made a lot of money by investing big. To convince investors to invest in you you need to be a good trader or a good manager that can build a team of professional traders.