The qualities that make a great trader aren’t entirely objective, but skill, experience, knowledge, and sheer guts are certainly all important. Some traders are famous for the sheer size of their trades, while for others, it’s more about their consistent level of trading success.
Jesse Livermore
This early American trader made his fortune on Wall Street more than once, successfully shorting not one but two market crashes—in 1907, and again in the crash that precipitated the Great Depression in 1929. Over this period of time, Livermore made more than $100 million (around $1.2 billion or £940 million today), while most other traders were suffering heavy losses despite their caution. Unlike the other people on this list, Livermore is famous for losing fortunes as well as making them. Vastly better at making money than managing it, he died by his own hand in 1940, leaving an estate worth around $5 million.
Paul Tudor Jones
Black Monday, the stock market crash that occurred in 1987, saw the Dow Jones Industrial Index plummet 22%, ruining the fortunes of countless numbers of people. Paul Tudor Jones was not one of them. In 1986, Jones predicted that the market was headed for a massive crash, and not content with simply being right, Jones also made a huge profit from the event. By shorting futures, he made a reported $100 million. Today, Paul Tudor Jones is worth over $4 billion.
George Soros
Founder of hedge fund company Soros Fund Management, which later became Quantum Fund, George Soros ran his company for nearly 20 years. While attaining a minimum 30% return each year, he managed, on two separate occasions, to post annual returns over 100%.
However, George Soros is best-known for one single trading event, not in stock, but in currency. In September 1992, Soros speculated and won, by using a massive £10 billion trade to short the British pound. In just one day, Soros made a £1 billion profit off this single trade. For this, George Soros earned recognition as the man who “broke” the Bank of England, as the government was forced to withdraw the bank from the European exchange rate mechanism.
Warren Buffet
It would be hard to argue that the world’s richest person does not deserve a place on this top 5 list; although, after giving away a substantial portion of his personal fortune in the name of philanthropy, Buffet is now the world’s second-richest person, behind Bill and Melinda Gates.
It’s not one incredible trade that earned Buffet his massive fortune, but a lifetime of patience, discipline, smart investing and trading, and compounding of returns. Duplicating Buffet’s methods would take not only a substantial amount of time, but also an incredible level of determination and dedication.
Richard J. Dennis
Commodities speculator Richard Dennis was in his 20s when he borrowed $1,600, and in his 30s when, around 10 years later, he had amassed a fortune of $200 million. Dennis believed firmly that anyone could learn to be a successful trader. To prove his point, he and fellow trader William Eckhardt recruited 23 people and taught them a method known as “turtle trading”. Dennis proved to be hugely successful at imparting these methods to his “turtles”, as the group collectively went on to earn more than $175 million.
