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Famous Traders

Written By

Tobias Robinson

Written By

Tobias Robinson

Tobias is a partner at DayTrading.com, director of a UK limited company and active trader. He has over 25 years of experience in the financial industry and contributed via CySec to the regulatory response to digital options and CFD trading in Europe. Toby’s expertise and dedication to financial education make him a trusted voice in the industry, including a BBC investigation into digital options.

» Tobias Robinson Profile Page

Edited By

Jemma Grist

Edited By

Jemma Grist

Jemma is a writer, editor and fact-checker focused on retail trading and investing. Jemma brings a unique perspective to the forex, stock, and cryptocurrency markets and works across several investment websites as a researcher and broker analyst.

» Jemma Grist Profile Page

Fact Checked By

William Berg

Fact Checked By

William Berg

William contributes to several investment websites, leveraging his experience as a consultant for IPOs in the Nordic market and background providing localization for forex trading software. William has worked as a writer and fact-checker for a long row of financial publications.

» William Berg Profile Page

Updated

Jul 2, 2024

Famous traders can teach you a lot. Seeing what these world-renowned investors have done to arrive at the positions they are in today can help you find trading tips and tricks. This guide will review the most famous traders of all time, from established investors to new traders taking social media by storm. We look at their backgrounds, how they made their money, current net worths, and what you can learn.

Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett is one of the most famous investors ever. At the time of writing, he is the fifth richest person on Earth with a net worth of around $110 billion.

His strong interest in trading was visible from a young age when he first purchased a stock at just 11 years old. Under the mentorship of economist Benjamin Graham, he learned how to spot assets whose stock prices were undervalued. Using this strategy with his investment company, Berkshire Hathaway, he has seen huge success.

Today, he has a wide range of stocks in his portfolio, such as Bank of America and Coca-Cola, both listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Joe Ross

Joe Ross is a famous trader with over 60 years of experience in investing. Nowadays, he offers trading advisory services through private mentoring costing $2,000 per day, books such as The Law of Charts, and webinars.

His background is as a professional trader working in various markets and instruments ranging from day trading stocks to forex and futures.

In 1988, Ross founded Trading Educators where he publishes regular ‘Chart Scan’ newsletters that offer advice on becoming a successful trader. This is also where he teaches about the ‘Ross Hook’, which is used for trading on price action after spotting 1-2-3 patterns in an asset’s value. I

Vladimir Ribakov

Vladimir Ribakov is one of many famous forex traders that now helps other investors by offering his tips, tricks and general advice following his 15 years of experience in the industry.

This support and information are available through his popular YouTube channel and training guides such as the Forex Crystal Ball and Forex Libra Code.

While his revenue and profits since he began trading are not known, he claims to have a winning trade rate of 78%.

George Soros

George Soros is one of the wealthiest Europeans and biggest traders in the world. He started his career at several different merchant banks until 1969 when he founded Double Eagle, a hedge fund.

He is known for making one of the most famous trades in history where he shorted the British pound sterling in 1992. This position ultimately generated profits of over $1 billion and lead to Soros being called the ‘man who broke the Bank of England’.

Nowadays, his capital has grown to a sum of around $6.7 billion.

Ezekiel Chew

Ezekiel Chew is considered one of the most famous traders in Asia.

Starting in 2008, he began teaching his friends and colleagues about how to invest in the forex market. As more and more people were interested in his teaching, he started a training website called the Asia Forex Mentor. As the name suggests, his education is tailored towards foreign exchange in Asian markets.

Chew is self-taught and learned about several different markets, such as mutual funds, commodities, and stocks in addition to forex, which he specializes in now.

Andrew Mitchem

Andrew Mitchem is one of the biggest forex traders and coaches who started investing in foreign exchange in 2003. With the experience he gained from working in these markets, he created one of the most famous education websites ‘The Forex Trading Coach’ in 2009 which has taught over 3600 students.

His teaching covers many areas such as high-frequency trading and swing trading. While Mitchem’s mentoring focuses on forex, he also has knowledge of commodity trading in gold, silver and oil.

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala

Considered the ‘Indian Warren Buffett’, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala was one of the most famous traders in India. Before his passing in August 2022, his net worth was estimated at $5.8 billion.

He started trading in 1985 with 5,000 Indian Rupees, which at the time was equivalent to around $100. He made the majority of his money from trading on the stock market through his asset management company called Rare Enterprises.

As his nickname suggests, his philosophy was similar to Buffett’s in that he conducted plenty of research to find and hold assets long-term rather than looking at short-term day and intraday trading.

Paul Tudor Jones

Paul Tudor Jones started his career investing in commodities such as cotton futures before he founded his own firm, Tudor Investment Corporation in 1980. From here, he began trading other instruments including futures on currencies.

He is one of the most famous traders who invests based on momentum and trends derived from technical analysis. This use of analysis helped him to predict and profit from the Black Monday stock market crash in 1987.

His background is in finance – he studied and earned an economics degree from the University of Virginia.

Paul Tudor Jones has a net worth of approximately $100 million.

Nick Syiek

Nick Syiek is one of the most famous traders known for forex but he also invests in stocks and commodities.

To help others to improve their investments, he launched A1 Trading, which offers indicators and tools for scanning and visualizing market data. He started trading at 19 with stocks and shares before transitioning over to forex trading.

Throughout his trading career, Syiek has made YouTube videos showing both his successes and failures. Additionally, he posted a popular series on his channel where he took a starting investment of $50,000 and turned it into $130,000.

Nick Syiek has a net worth of over $3 million.

ClayTrader

ClayTrader is famous for his trading educational courses offered through his popular website and Instagram. His experience and expertise come from generating returns in stock trading and eventually allowed him to quit his full-time job at Honeywell.

Unfortunately, information such as his revenue, net worth or even real name is not publicly available. Even so, the success story and many helpful resources have helped ClayTrader to become one of the most famous traders in the US.

Jim Rogers

Jim Rogers is a famous trader whose first investing was in stocks and bonds before pairing with George Soros to be part of the hedge fund, Quantum Fund. After joining, the hedge fund’s portfolio grew by 4,200% in the space of just seven years, investing in markets around the world, including Japanese securities.

After leaving the hedge fund, he went on to write many trading books, including his famous ‘Investment Biker: Around the World with Jim Rogers’. This is the story of how he circumnavigated the globe looking at developing markets worthy of investment.

Jim Rodgers’ net worth is estimated to be $300 million.

Changpeng Zhao

Founder of the online cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao has become one of the most famous crypto traders in the world with an estimated net worth of over $17 billion.

Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume. It is a popular choice, offering a wide range of tokens such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Cardano (ADA) with both day trading and swing trading supported.

Zhao has a strong background is in finance and trading, for example, his first internship after university was working with the Tokyo Stock Exchange. His dedication and interest in crypto, in particular, were evident when he sold his apartment in Shanghai to buy Bitcoin in 2015.

To keep up to date with Changpeng Zhao, you can follow his accounts on both Instagram and Twitter.

Richard Dennis

Richard Dennis is one of the most famous traders in the US who turned $400 into over a million before he turned 26.

His profits came from trading futures and holding positions to benefit from long-term momentum. He found success with commodities, in particular, during the 1970s with events such as the Great Russian Grain Robbery, which lead to massive increases in the price of wheat.

He is also famous for his program that taught the Turtle Trading Strategy, which says to buy when an asset’s price is greater than its recent range and sell when lower than this range.

Ryan Persad

The founder of ‘Options League’, Ryan Persad is an investor that has been featured in Forbes and Huffington Post and has won a Top 10 percent: Global Financial Literacy Award. He is one of the most famous young traders in the US.

Born in 1999, the young entrepreneur quickly found success in the stock market, generating over $1 million in revenue by the age of 21. To share what the stock market has taught him so far, Persad launched his training course provider called Options League.

Jim Simons

Jim Simons is a mathematician that found success as a hedge fund manager. Widely considered one of the best investors on Wall Street, he has amassed a net worth of over $28 billion.

Using quantitative analysis to aid trade decisions and investments for Renaissance Technologies, Simons became one of the USA’s most famous traders. This analysis-backed strategy meant that in the space of 30 years between 1988 and 2018, Simons’ hedge fund, Medallion, generated profits of over $100 billion.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Similar to Jim Simons, Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a mathematician that began managing hedge funds, with a particular focus on derivatives such as options.

One of the key reasons why he is such a famous trader is his ability to accurately predict and profit from crises. Examples include the Black Monday crash in 1987 and the global financial crisis of 2008.

Taleb’s net worth is estimated to be around $100 million.

The TradingExperts

Bennett Zamani and Shake Pryzby are two of the most famous traders in the world and are well known for their swing trading strategies. They garnered acclaim from Influencive who considered them to be the number 1 stock trading mentor of 2021.

Before they launched the education course, both worked on Wall Street which gave them experience with trading and learning industry secrets. It is these tips and their expertise that Ben and Shake share with those who want to learn more about trading.

Samuel Leach

Based in London, UK, Samuel Leach is a self-taught trader who turned £2,000 into £178,000 in one year while studying at university. He was voted the number 1 trader to follow in 2020 Yahoo! Finance and now is a contributor to the personal finance section of Forbes.

To help other investors learn how to replicate his success, he launched an education company called Samuel and Co. Trading where he covers a wide range of topics. This includes everything from stocks and forex to algo-trading.

John Paulson

John Paulson is a famous trader and hedge fund manager. His years of successful trades and investments have helped him to accrue a net worth of approximately $3 billion.

Paulson started his trading career on Wall Street working for a range of different investment firms such as Odyssey Partners and Bear Stearns. He is most famous for profiting from the 2008 financial crisis where he took a short position against the US housing market. From this single trade, he generated returns of $4 billion.

Andrew Aziz

Andrew Aziz is one of the most famous Canadian traders today. With what started as a hobby, Aziz turned day trading into his career after being laid off from an engineering research company.

After spending time teaching himself about different markets and analysis, he soon became a professional trader with a focus on stocks and shares. He has since published several books, including ‘How to Day Trade for a Living’, alongside his educational website, Bear Bull Traders. Through this site, you can learn about trading tools, possible strategies and the psychology of investing.

Being a successful day trader has meant he is now a member of the Forbes Business Council and has an estimated net worth of $20 million.

Final Word On Famous Traders

Studying the most famous traders in the world and their strategies can be both motivating and informative for aspiring investors. Many of the famous traders mentioned in this guide have taken steps to share their knowledge to help other investors reach financial freedom. Remember though, a common factor amongst all these famous traders is the time and effort they invested into becoming successful.

Head to our list of the brokers with the best educational resources for more tips and tricks.

FAQs

Who Is The Best And Most Famous Trader In Forex?

The most famous forex trader will vary depending on who you talk to. While there is no single answer, traders such as George Soros, Paul Tudor Jones and Richard Dennis are all popular investors who have found success trading in the forex market.

Where In The World Are The Most Famous Traders?

You can find famous traders all over the world, for example, in Dubai, UAE and other Muslim and Arab countries as well as the Philippines, Pakistan, Malaysia and Singapore from Asia. There are also many popular British, Dutch, American and African traders who you can follow.

It is important to note that while some tricks in one country or market my work well, they may not be as suitable for others. For example, what works for famous forex traders in South Africa may not transfer well to crypto traders in India or Australian options traders.

Who Is The Most Famous Trader In History?

There are many famous traders today such as Warren Buffett and George Soros, but this may depend on where you live. For instance, famous traders in India and China may not be so well known in the US. Our list also does not account for famous traders who died several decades ago, for example, Nicolas Darvas and Jesse Livermore.

Who Is The Best Intraday Trader In The World?

Andrew Aziz is one of the most famous day traders in the world. If you are interested in his teaching or learning how he has become successful, you can read one of his many books or subscribe to his teaching program.

What Strategies Do Famous Traders Use?

World-famous traders use a range of different strategies, especially when investing in different markets. For instance, some may opt for hedging on crypto derivatives, scalping on gold, or trading an energy like oil. Some of the biggest traders in the world use strategies with indicators and analyses they create themselves.

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