Forex Trading has become one of the most popular ways of earning money. Many people are involved in the Forex industry and some of them are already very successful and well known to the whole world. The Forex industry is a huge industry and a lot of money can be generated once you understand the market and the market movement. It may look very easy from the outside, but as soon as you dig a bit deeper you will see that being a good and successful Forex Trader definitely requires some skills and a lot of effort.

Within this article, you will have a clear outlook on the most successful Forex traders ever known to the Forex Industry. We will also guide you through their lives and their main strategies, which they used in trading. This can be very important for beginners and several of those candidates have become the major role models for many people around the world.

Moreover, we will stress some major similarities and differences between the traders. Some patterns might be very similar to each other, while others can be very unique. This is also a common thing as every person finds his or her own wat to success.

George Soros

To some questions, there are some definite answers. If we have the question of who is the greatest forex trader ever, we will definitely come with the answer, which should be George Soros. This is for the reason, as this person managed to become one of the most famous people in the world and contributed a lot to the popularisation of the Forex industry in general.

While Soros should be leading the list of top successful forex traders we should also know the great history and background of his investments. His first checkmate was back in 1992 when he made his legendary move on Black Wednesday. He is known for greatly managing money and this is definitely one of his strongest sides. He profited more than one billion from his short position in pounds.

Back in 1992, the UK as part of the Exchange Rate Mechanism. This required the government to intervene if the currency was anyhow weakened beyond a certain set level against Deutsche Mark. It was Soros, who contributed a lot in making the sudden and very right moves, as he predicted that the combination of circumstances, which also included the high level of British interest rate as well as the unfordable rate at which Britain joined the Merchants at the very beginning. This prediction made the whole Bank of England, BoE very vulnerable and intrigued.

Britain decided to cat instead of watching, and thus relying on the predictions of the greatest Forex trader, they committed to maintaining the value of the currency against Deitche Mark, via intervention in the form of buying sterling or raising interest rates when the pound generally weekend. This also meant that certain changes would affect the economy of the whole country. Due to the circumstances, the investments at this period were hindered, while they were the most essential.

The value of the currency was maintained, as the British people bought sterling. It was Soros who took the main and the most defining measures several weeks prior to the Black Wednesday. He created the Quantum Fund to build a large position short of sterling. Exactly on the eve of the black day, some of the comments from Gemrna side mentioned the pressure on some currencies. Those comments were the signal for Soros to increase his positions significantly.

Bank of England began buying pounds on Black Wednesday morning, while at exactly the same moment everyone noticed the major move of the price of the pound. This was determined by the major selling in the market from other speculators, that followed Soro’s lead.

The last cast-off undertaking to hike UK rates that had immediately hit 15% showed nothing by any means. At the point when the UK reported its exit from the ERM and a resumption of a free-gliding pound, the currency plunged 15% against the Deutsche Mark, and 25% against the US dollar. Therefore, the Quantum Fund made billions of dollars and Soros got known as the man who broke the Bank of England and the man who knew how to trade. His accomplishment can undoubtedly be included in the list of famous forex traders to follow in the long run.

Stanley Druckenmiller

It is said that an apple does not fall far away from the tree. This is very true while talking about Stanley Druckenmiller, who is known to be Soros’ student. Stanley has worked along with his mentor on Quantum Fund for decades and thus he has learned all of the best from him. Though, on the other side, Stanley has been named as one of the best day traders in the world, not only because of figuring next to Soros but due to his successful management of billions of dollars in his own fund Duquesne Capital.

Druckenmiller took a significant part in accomplishing the Black Wednesday trade, though he has his own strategy and his own vision of the whole market. His unique approach made him one of the best Forex traders in the world. He has an incredibly successful record of double-digit gains. He was successful and had a flood of gains until the moment of his retirement.

His main philosophy involved that you should be pursuing aggressively profits when the trades are going well. This approach downplays the real importance of being right or wrong at the moment. The strategy of long-term returns revolved around preserving capital has brought him billions of dollars. He has been valued a total of $2 billion.

Another advantage of the strategy is that it maximizes the opportunity while being right, though simultaneously minimizes the losses while being wrong. You have a lot to win, but a little to lose in this case. Druckenmiller has published his own book  “The New Market Wizards” and has highlighted one of his favorite phrases, which can stand as a motto for many occasions “there are a lot of shoes on the shelf, wear only the ones that fit”.

Bill Lipschutz

In the list of Forex masters, we can see Bill Lipschultz, who made his profits of hundreds of millions of dollars in the Forex industry. He made his fortune of Salomon Brother back in 1980s. Bill is a very odd occasion, as it was his first and the most successful experience, as he has never traded ever before. Bill has a nickname of the Sultan of Currencies. This actually corresponds a lot to his great success and management of the market.

According to Lipschultz, the Forex industry is a very philosophical market. Thus just like many other successful Forex traders, he often says that the market perceptions often help determine price action as much as pure fundamentals of the industry. While Druckenmiller has something in common with Soros, Lipschultz has a common view on the forex traders with Druckenmiller. Both of them think that successful trading in forex is not determined by being all the way right, but instead, it is mostly about for ofter you are wrong. Thus, his main idea is to learn trading and making money considering the factor that you can only be right fr 20 to 30% of the time.

Lipschultz has highlighted some of the major tenets.

• Any trading idea needs to be well reasoned before you place the trade
• Build a position as the market goes your way and exit the same way
• Start to ease up once there are signs that the fundamentals and the price action are beginning to change
• There is a need to be aware of the market’s focus
• FX is a 24-hour market and doesn’t stop moving when you go to bed

He also stresses on the importance of the risks and the risk management, especially the trading sizes, while you can be moved out of your positions and may be out of time.

Andrew Kreiger

Just like the previous three traders, Andrew Kreiger did not complete his career, without trading next to George Soros. Kreiger is known for being a type of trader that is the most aggressive and successful in the Forex markets at the same time. It can be said that his personal characteristics were one of the most vital at the beginning of his career.

Kreiger attended and graduated from the Wharton School of Business and he joined Bankers Trust back in 1986. As mentioned before his charismatic and very aggressive, though persuading character attracted attention in the higher echelons and top management. According to their decision, they granted him a trading limit of $700 million. This was way higher than the ordinary limit, which was only $50 million for other traders.

His main success in the company came in the 1987 crash. This was when most markets went drastically downwards by at least 20%. At this moment, Kreiger identified New Zealand dollar as very overvalued. We went short on the currency with the leverage of 1;400. Via this move, he actually exceeded the circulating liquidity of the currency. If you could use the modern meme of “One Hour Later”, this would be just the right fit.

In a matter of several hours only, the currency moved 5% against US Dollar. This resulted in Kreiger making an extra $300 million for his company and made him enter the forex millionaire list as well. Now, all of the risks and the trust from the management was justified. Though, shortly after, Andrew went to work with Soros.

Paul Tudor Jones

We should not miss one of the best day traders alive today. Paul Tudor Jones is easily on the list of the world’s best forex traders. His story is inspiring via simplicity and very ordinary life. Unlike many other traders, he began his career overall, via being a clerk on the trading floor. It can be said that he started from zero and managed to top the lists of the forex millionaire.

Tudor Jones was born in 1954. He graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in Economics in 1976. After graduating from university, he started working as a clerk. Not that many people can say that they have turned down the Harward Business School invitation, though Paul Tudor Jones is one of the very few people who can.

Instead of attending Harward University, Jones went to work as a commodities trader at NYSE. This apparently was a wise decision, which brought his millions of dollars. The extremely successful trader in Forex founded his own company shortly after. His firm Tudor Investment Corporation benefited $100 million from a single night of 1987 crash. He managed to make a profit of 62% via sticking to his short positions. This brought the company a huge income. Jones did not finish with this single benefit but continued developing his firm further and further. Besides his personal achievements, we chaired NYSE from 1992 until 1995.

Urs Schwarzenbach

Among the best Forex success stories, we should definitely mention one of the richest traders in the UK, as well as former emperor of the British foreign exchange trading empire. Urs Schwarzenbach, originally from Switzerland is one of the richest gentlemen in English high society, who is always though, but never spoken about.

Urs was once the biggest and the key figure in the business. His first major and the most important step was getting a job of leading the USB’s foreign exchange operations in London. This was back in the 70s. This was the period when he earned most of his wealth and hundreds of millions of pounds trading in currencies.

It usually happens when rich people get into trouble with TAX authorities. For Urs, it is not an exception. He has registered a lot of properties in the offshore, which is not acceptable for the tax authorities and should always be the topic of discussion. According to some reports, he owns the properties and whole villages. One of the most famous properties is the Hambleden in Buckinghamshire, which formed the backdrop to Midsomer Murders. He owns the village through offshore vehicles.

It should be mentioned that the life of the successful forex trader is also calmed and comforted as being a very close friend of Prince Charles. He is valued at 1.08 billion pounds sterling, which makes him one of the richest Forex traders, as well as one of the richest men in Britain.

Urs is the director of the Guards Polo Club and owner of the Black Bears polo tea. He is also the former sportsman. Currently, he lives in Culham Court, with his former Miss Australia wife Francesca. While the clear background of the trader is yet unknown, according to one of his very few interviews he had some money from his father and then made more money via selling British pounds and other things at the right moment. Being at the right moment, at the right place should be everything.

Ed Seykota

“The aha! process lies at the heart of price change. For instance, consider the series: OTTFFSSE. What is the next letter? This puzzle creates tension–until you see the first letters of the ordinal numbers–one, two. Aha! you say. A lot happens during an aha. The puzzle dies and the tension dissipates. A societal aha! drives price. Read the newspapers and news magazines during a major move. At first, no one gets why the move is happening. There’s a lot of confusion. Part of the move’s way up, some people get it. In the end, everybody gets it. The tension is resolved and the movie ends.”

Those words belong to one of the most important and significant people in the Forex industry and history. While not all traders make wealth while trading online, some traders simply make much more and leave very important traces for others. Ed Seykota is one of the Forex successful traders as well as top forex figures of the industry.

Ed is a self-taught trader and he has dedicated most of his life and time to studying and teaching the psychology of the market and its components. Ed has been seriously influenced by Richard Donchain’s writing, which determined his success in career.

Besides the fact that he has turned $5,000 into $15,000,000 over a 12 year time period in his model account–an actual client account, Ed has contributed to the whole industry way more. While he has been studying and examining the strategies and the market components, he has also been actively mentoring many successful forex traders.

Back in the 1970s, Seykota was hired as an analyst by one fo the biggest brokerage firms. He conceived and developed the first commercial computerized trading system for managing clients’ money in the markets. This has been one of the major inventions in the forex industry, which has determined the whole flow and vision of the markets for the future.

Richard Dennis

Nineteen eighty-six was a huge year for Richard Dennis. He made $80 million (about $147 million in 2007 dollars). That kind of money-making put him squarely at the center of Wall Street alongside other forex trading millionaires and billionaires like George Soros, who was making $100 million, and then junk bond king Michael Milken of Drexel Burnham Lambert, who was pulling in $80 million.

Profits like those for Dennis came with heartburn. He was down $10 million in a single day that year before bouncing back, a rollercoaster ride that would have made mere mortals lose serious sleep. Yet Dennis cockily said that he slept like a baby during all that volatility.

His moneymaking style was about mammoth home runs and many smaller strikeouts. If there was a “secret,” he knew that you had to be able to accept losses both psychologically and physiologically. Still, 1986 was a long time ago, and memories dull when an old pro starts talking about the benefits of taking “losses.” During his heyday in the 1970s, 1980s, and mid-1990s, Dennis was described in a number of ways by those who knew of him. There was Dennis the legendary floor trader, Dennis the trading system’s trading guru, Dennis who started funds with investment bank Drexel Burnham, Dennis the philanthropist, Dennis the political activist, and Dennis the industry-leading money manager. He was a difficult man to stereotype, and he liked it that way.

While for some people the wealthy families are one of the reasons for success and wealth, for Dennis this was not the case. He was raised in 1950 in Chicago. He never had silver spoons or wealthy parents, neither had he well-placed friends or the right connections. Instead, he was a steer kid from the South Side neighborhood. This should have significantly impacted his character and his passion for the work and his very determined temper.

Money was never the most important thing is the life of Dennis, but was the tool to keeping a score in the game. He gave one of the very frank interviews about this topic saying: “Trading is a little bit like hitting a ball. If you’re thinking what your batting average should be, you’re not concentrating on the right thing when you bat the ball. Dollars are the batting average of the trader.”

He has always been the original thinker and a big-time baseball fan. His career started way before the turtle experiment but was ratified by it. He has left a strong visual and consensual image on everyone and occupies an important position in the forex millionaires list.  One of his students smiled, “You need to make sure he’s wearing a matched pair of the same color.”

Bill Williams

Bill Williams is another very influential figure in the forex industry. He has been the most important figure in the world of trading psychology as well as trading analysis. Despite the fact that he is among the millionaires forex traders, he has done way more than only making his own wealth from trading. His major fame came after he published a series of books “Trading Chaos” back in the 1990s. He has also invented some of the most popular and useful indicators.

Williams has been involved in the industry for almost a decade and educating people on the subject for over 25 years. This is one of his best achievements, that he decided to share his knowledge with the people around him.

Not all people are supposed to have only financial knowledge while trading online. Moreover, Williams is one of the few people who say that trading online is far beyond the fundamentals only. It is all about the psychology of the market. He also emphasizes the importance of the behavioral aspect of financial trading.

Williams has graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering Physics, and a Master’s degree in Psychology. This is one of the combinations which are not commonly observed among the top forex traders. Due to his Master’s degree, he was able to focus on some deeper aspects of the market and trader and come up with some new essential tools. He said that very often markets have little to do with the objective valuations, but more with the perception of the value.

Bill Williams is not only one of the most successful forex traders, but one of the most educated forex traders as well. His indicators are widely used even in the modern trading society. Though, this does not mean that they should be the best match for you. You should figure out your own strategy first and come up with your trading techniques.

Bill would always say, that the best indicator is the one that is not governed by the opinions of others. So keep being individual and choose the best pair for yourself.

Bruce Kovner

The last but definitely not the least in the list of top 10 forex traders is Bruce Kovner. He is known as a super trader and focuses not only on the current forex market but on the future of the forex market overall. Between 1978 to 1987, he gained a yearly average rate of return of 87%. It is an astonishing achievement even in the market with high leverage.

Bruce Kovner is a graduate of Harvard University. He has a deep knowledge of politics and economics, and thus he stayed at Harvard University to teach politics. He also does the research in the economics of countries and works on Forex trade. According to him, it is always better to have a general idea about the item you will be investing in before you start trading.

Throughout those years he has figured out his own successful trading strategy. His strategy is all about patience. He is waiting until the prices reach the new heights and only then buys more as long as it sags to a certain price. This does not necessarily mean that it will work for you, though it is useful for short term swings.

‘Once a while, I am not able to find reasons for the reverse of market trend and my prediction. Until now, I will immediately short position if the market is going in a different direction with my prediction. On 19th Oct. 1987, the day of the global stock crisis. I can not figure out the fundamental crash reason, then short all the positions from 19th to 29th. One discipline to remember: never bear the loss caused by the market you are unclear about.’ It is always better to trade when you are self-convinced and confident with yourself and thus have the market in your hands.

Just like some other millionaire forex traders, Kovner chooses fundamental analysis trading over technical analysis. With this approach, he will never invest money unless he knows the reason of market movement. Bruce uses technical analysis only for supplementary.

Summary

While there are many success stories of the very successful and rich forex traders, all of them have some things in common. The forex industry is generally very hard and complex and it is very rare that someone can get rich instantly within the industry. Though, a lot of dedication, attention, and passion are needed in order to enter the list of the best of the bests.

There is little uncertainty that the best traders are a high class not that many. In any case, by taking a gander at a select group of successful forex traders we can see that they share a couple of things practically speaking:

• Discipline – the ability to recognize when a trade is wrong and therefore minimize losses
• Risk control – having a strong understanding of a trade’s risk/reward
• Courage – the willingness to be different from the rest of the crowd, most of the time
• Astuteness – judging how perceptions are shaping market trends
• Patience – the ability to keep your hands to yourself and wait for The Moment

The combination of those characteristics has not once shown that is grated with a lot of profits and success. One way or another, here are some of the best forex traders in the world of all time, and all in all, they might be a good inspiration for you to create your very first account.