A look at the world’s richest forex traders shows that the world of forex can become a stepping stone for one who intends to make good money.
The beautiful part about the world’s richest forex traders is that most started out young, and some started learning at an older age.
And these details can only be obtained when you know about the world’s richest forex traders. In this article, you will get to know the top 20 richest forex traders, and how they started.
Table of Contents
- What Is Forex
- What Is Forex Trading About?
- Who Are The Forex Traders: Who Controls The Forex Market?
- Top 20 World’s Richest Forex Traders
- How To Succeed As A Forex Trader
- FAQs About The Richest Forex Traders
- Conclusion
What Is Forex
Forex, which stands for “foreign exchange,” is a network of buyers and sellers who agree on a price and then trade money with each other.
It’s how people, businesses, and central banks change one currency into another. If you’ve ever traveled abroad, you’ve probably done a forex transaction.
Even though some foreign exchange is done for practical reasons, the vast majority of currency exchange is done to make money.
Due to the amount of money that is changed every day, the prices of some currencies can be very volatile. And this is what makes forex so appealing to traders: it makes it more likely that they will make a lot of money, but it also makes the risk higher.
What Is Forex Trading About?
As promised, this article will give you the maximum details you need about the richest forex traders; including the world’s richest forex traders.
Forex is not traded on an exchange like stocks or commodities. Instead, it is traded directly between two parties in an over-the-counter (OTC) market.
The foreign exchange market is run by a global network of banks that are spread out across four major trading centers in London, New York, Sydney, and Tokyo, which are all in different time zones.
Since there is no central place, you can trade forex at any time of day or night. You will see the type of markets the richest forex traders trade in.
Spot Forex market
Spot forex trading is a type of trading in which currency pairs are traded on the spot within a short amount of time after the trade is settled.
Forward Forex market
The richest forex traders also trade in the forward forex market. In this type of trade, a contract is made to buy or sell a set amount of a currency at a set price on a certain date or within a range of dates in the future.
Future Forex markets
Some of the world’s richest forex traders also trade the above two and this one. In this type of trade, a deal is made to buy or sell a certain amount of a certain currency at a certain price and on a specific date in the future.
It is also worth noting that a futures contract is legally binding, while a forward contract is not.
Most traders who bet on foreign exchange prices don’t plan to take delivery of the currency itself. Instead, they make predictions about exchange rates to take advantage of price changes in the market.
Who Are The Forex Traders: Who Controls The Forex Market?
Forex trading is decentralized in the sense that it is not under the control of a single entity, such as a government or an international organization.
Even the world’s richest forex traders do not own the market. Governments (often through their central banks) and commercial banks are the two main players in the market.
In the forex market, everybody is a participant. And the main participants are:
1. The Super Banks
The biggest banks in the world set exchange rates since the FX spot market is decentralized.
They often determine the desired bid/ask spread based on the supply and demand for currencies.
Each day, these huge banks, together referred to as the interbank market, engage in an absurd number of FX transactions for the benefit of both their clients and themselves.
They’re referred to as “flow monsters.” ; Citi, JPMorgan, UBS, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and Bank of America are a few of these flow monsters.
2. Significant Business Enterprises
Businesses participate in the foreign exchange market to conduct business. For instance, in order to buy electronic components from Japan for its goods, Apple must first convert its U.S. dollars into Japanese yen.
This sort of market participant often transacts with commercial banks because their trade volume is significantly lower than that of participants in the interbank market.
Large company mergers and acquisitions (M&A) can also cause changes in currency exchange rates.
3. Central Banks and Governments
Governments and central banks, like the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, and the European Central Bank, frequently participate in the FX market.
National governments participate in the forex market for their operations, payments for international trade, and management of their foreign exchange reserves, just like businesses do.
When central banks change interest rates to combat inflation, this has an impact on the FX market.
They can influence currency valuation by doing this.
When central banks wish to realign currency rates, they may meddle in the forex market verbally or directly.
Sometimes, central banks launch sizable sell/buy operations to shift exchange rates because they believe their currency is priced either too high or too low.
4. The Investors
This is where the world’s richest forex traders come. They mostly Buy and hold foreign currency with the intention of selling it later at a higher exchange rate, and this is known as currency speculation.
As opposed to those who purchase currencies in order to pay for imported goods and services or to finance foreign investments.
Buying and selling currencies with the intention of making a profit constitute forex market speculation.
Speculators concentrate on changes in price. Because no one can predict with certainty whether the price of a currency pair will increase or decrease, it is known as speculation.
Before entering a trade, traders evaluate the likelihood of both possible outcomes. Speculators, who make up about 90% of all trading volume, are players in the forex market of all shapes and sizes.
They all trade currencies with the sole purpose of making a ton of money, whether they have deep pockets or thin ones. And you and I know the richest forex traders have very deep pockets.
The richest forex traders in the world have made their mark in the world of forex, and we are about to unravel them.
Top 20 World’s Richest Forex Traders
1. George Soros
This man tops the list of the world’s forex richest traders. George Soros, who was born in Hungary in 1952, began trading while still in school.
He devised a plan to take highly leveraged positions based on changes in exchange rates, and that plan paid off in 1992, earning him the title of “man who broke the Bank of England.”
During the Black Wednesday crisis, he took a sizable short position on the British Pound. He accurately foresaw numerous elements that would make the Bank of England susceptible should it need to interfere if the pound’s value against the Deutsche Mark fell below a specific threshold.
He made almost $1 billion from the trade. Since then, he has amassed a net worth of about $8 billion. Thus, his ranking among the wealthiest FX traders of all time.
2. Joe Lewis
Another one of the richest forex traders is Joe Lewis. He was born in the UK and started working at age 15 by assisting with the management of the family catering company.
He sold the company a few years later in order to start forex trading. Given that he partnered with George Soros in 1992 to gamble against the British Pound and earned an astonishing $1.8 billion from the deal, it was a wise choice. He is currently worth about $5 billion.
3. Paul Tudor Jones
The third of the world’s richest forex traders on the list is Paul Jones. He chose to work as a commodities trader after earning an economics degree from the University of Virginia in 1976 instead of attending Harvard Business School.
He made over $100 million by betting against the 1987 market meltdown, which was a wise move.
Since then, he has established the Tudor Investment Corporation, which focuses on changes in interest rates in the currency market.
From 1992 to 1995, he served as chairman of the NYSE as well. He is currently one of the richest forex traders in the world, with a reported $4.5 billion net worth.
4. Stanley Druckenmiller
Another name on the list of the richest forex traders connected to George Soros is Stanley Druckenmiller.
He was the head portfolio manager of the Quantum Fund and spent more than ten years managing money for Soros.
Stanley was raised in Pennsylvania, graduated with a BA in English and Economics, and then started working for Pittsburg National Bank as an oil analyst.
After only one year of operation, he founded his own company, Duquesne Capital Management.
Despite giving more than $700 million to medical research and initiatives to fight poverty, he has a net worth of more than $2 billion today.
Additionally, he gave forex traders some sound advice, saying that central banks should be watched since liquidity drives the market movement.
5. Bill Lipschutz
One of the richest forex traders in the world is Bill Lipschutz, who made hundreds of millions of dollars trading at the Salomon Brothers in the 1980s.
But his love for trading actually started in college, where he put $12,000 of his grandmother’s inheritance to use. His current profit total is close to $2 billion.
His basic piece of advice for aspiring investors is to concentrate on their losses. This is simply because that is what will define their total performance.
Furthermore, Bill Lipschutz is credited with saying that the best traders figure out how to earn money even when they are only correct 20 to 30% of the time.
6. Carl Icahn
Another billionaire trader on the list of the world’s richest forex traders is Carl Icahn. His comparison to Warren Buffet is not new because of how much his insight and brilliance made him an investment icon. Some people even assert that he is wiser and superior to Warren Buffet!
Icahn was born in New York into a family of educators. He was close to his uncle, M. Elliot Schnall, and with his support, he was able to borrow $4,000 in order to purchase a seat at the New York Stock Exchange. The history of this typical New Yorker began with that.
In the middle of the 1980s, Icahn acquired Trans World Airlines. It was the riskiest investment he had ever made because the business declared bankruptcy in 1992 but emerged from it within a year.
Icahn Enterprises, often known as Icahn’s holding company, made investments in a variety of American and worldwide businesses, including Netflix, Apple, Revlon, Motorola, Time Warner, and Viacom. He quickly amassed a fortune of $17 billion thanks to his clever and astute bets.
7. Luke Blackburn
In Yorkshire, England, Luke Blackburn was a typical teenager from a typical household. Blackburn had academic difficulties, and his college lecturers predicted that he would not succeed in life.
Blackburn’s story is a very fascinating story amongst the world’s richest forex traders. He left college early to work as an apprentice for an IT firm.
He started forex trading during his apprenticeship because he noticed that several of his buddies were also doing it.
His first objective was to earn just enough money to cover his basic needs without having to worry about employment, but he ended up becoming a billionaire at the age of 23.
8. Samuel Leach
A well-known personality amongst the richest forex traders is Samuel Leach; he got his start as a young, ambitious working-class man.
He wrote 50 pages of justifications for the bank’s hiring in order to get his first job at a private bank. He was able to do this by applying to all of the Google jobs that paid the most money, regardless of the amount of experience they required.
Through his employment, he gained knowledge of the trade industry and submitted applications to college.
He used his academic bursary to start his first FX trading venture. He established his own business, Samuel & Co. Trading, in 2012, and grew to become one of the UK’s youngest millionaires.
9. Joshua Stewart
Another of the richest forex traders that have a fascinating story is Joshua Stewart. Engineering student Joshua Stewart attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.
When the idea of forex trading was first explained to him, he was in his junior year. The idea of making money online exhilarated Stewart and his buddies, but the process was challenging and dangerous.
To take reasonable risks, they invest time in studying forex trading. At the age of 23, Stewart eventually dropped out of college and amassed a million dollars. And this made him fall into the category of the world’s richest forex trader.
Stewart, who serves as a mentor to a number of young students, believes it is crucial to assist others in understanding forex trading.
10. Percy Smith
Percy Smith is the youngest self-made of the richest forex traders in the entire globe. Because he is an extremely secretive individual, little is known about his private life.
Smith, who is from the tiny South American nation of Guyana, emigrated to America when he was 12 years old. He began trading in bitcoin at the very early age of 13, and he soon profited thousands of dollars.
At age 15, he soon developed an interest in forex trading. He was known as “the dude” and attracted a lot of attention when he began making significant forex trades in the Turkish markets.
After becoming one of the world’s richest forex traders, he made his first movie investment when he was 18 and went on to make investments in The Accountant and Deadpool, among other movies.
11. Dan Legg
Dan Legg, a millionaire from Somerset, England, who is 21 years old, developed an interest in forex trading after suffering a significant setback in his life when he was 17 years old.
After failing his A-level examinations, Legg started to watch YouTube videos about forex trading. This marked the beginning of his being one of the richest forex traders.
Dan came from a typical household; his parents owned and operated an ice cream shop in a small town. He used the cash he had saved by working at a restaurant to make his first investment.
Despite early disappointments, he quickly began to make very lucrative deals and ultimately amassed a million dollars.
He now runs a number of properties, teaches forex trading courses, and pays his parents a salary so they are no longer required to work.
12. Shaun Benjamin
Shaun Benjamin was raised in Newcastle, South Africa, after being born to a middle-class Swaziland family.
Benjamin’s ride to becoming one of the world’s richest forex traders did not come easily to him because he was raised by a single mother. He was going to begin his engineering studies at the university after completing his high school education.
Due to a lack of funds, he was unable to continue in the profession. He was successful in getting an internship and earning a certificate in coal mining blasting operations.
But he had higher aspirations for himself than a job, and he soon began seriously pursuing forex trading.
At the age of 21, Benjamin made his first million dollars through forex trading. He later established the Benjamin Forex Academy to offer accessible instruction in forex trading.
13. Simz D’Mandla
The next on the list of richest forex traders is Simz D’Mandla and he is from a modest household in the South African village of Tembisa.
D’Mandla began selling trinkets like pants and shoes when he was just seven years old. He then began working at a nearby barbershop to support his family. D’Mandla did not, however, stop himself from having huge dreams.
While still in high school, he developed an interest in forex trading after meeting a mentor who informed him of the market’s possibilities. D’Mandla achieved financial success at the impressively young age of 20 and joined the league of the world’s richest forex traders.
Through his company, Trade4Africa, D’Mandla is dedicated to informing South African youth about the potential of forex trading. This is because he was able to overcome poverty by learning how to trade currencies.
14. Andrew Krieger
After leaving a position at Salomon Brothers, Andy Krieger started working for Banker’s Trust in 1986.
He quickly developed a reputation as a skilled trader. Thus, the corporation rewarded him by raising his capital limit from the regular $50 million limits to $700 million.
This move was pivotal to him becoming one of the richest forex traders in the world. With this cash reserve, he was well-positioned to profit from the Oct. 19, 1987 crash, sometimes known as “Black Monday.”
During a global panic in financial assets, Krieger concentrated on the New Zealand dollar (NZD), which he thought was susceptible to short selling.
By using foreign currency options in addition to his already large trading limit, he dramatically increased his exposure and acquired a short position that may have matched the New Zealand money supply. This earned him a spot amongst the world’s richest forex traders.
He generated $300 million in earnings for his firm as a result of this trade. He abruptly departed the company the next year, reportedly dissatisfied with a rumoured $2.5 to $3 million incentive.
15. Ref Wayne
Another one of the richest forex traders is Ref Wayne He is a forex dealer from South Africa. After quitting school as a youth, Ref Wayne started investing.
He was one of South Africa’s richest millionaires from forex trading by the age of 19. Ref Wayne has demonstrated his ability to understand the online investing environment and spot possibilities in the $5 trillion daily foreign exchange market.
With a net worth estimated at $500 million, Ref Wayne currently ranks among the top 5 richest forex dealers in South Africa. And he is among the world’s richest forex traders.
16. Neliswe Masango
Despite having aspirations of becoming a neurosurgeon, Neliswe chose to make her way in the currency exchange industry.
She was promoted to Director of Bear Run Investments due to her exceptional work ethic and market acumen.
Neliswe is currently one of the most wanted amongst the richest forex traders in South Africa and the world.
17. Sandile Shezi
Sandile Shezi is a member of a group of millionaires in South Africa who make their living from retail forex trading.
In South Africa, he is the youngest and richest forex trader who started investing at the age of 12. He is currently valued at more than $2.4 million.
Since becoming wealthy, Sandile has founded the Global Forex Institute, which provides young people from low-income homes with free financial instruction.
18. Uche Paragon
Many of the richest forex traders in terms of currency are from South Africa. A few of the top FX traders, nevertheless, are from other nations in Africa, such as Nigeria, Zambia, Ghana, Uganda, and Kenya.
Uche Paragon, a trader from Nigeria who has built a prosperous career by dealing in currencies and commodities, is one of them.
As one of the world’s richest forex traders, the net worth of ParaGon was close to $16 million in 2019.
In his opinion, he believes that learning the markets and perfecting tactics before using them in real-money investing has contributed to his success.
19. Bade Ajidahun Afioluwa
Another one of the richest forex traders is Bade, from Nigeria. Bade spent years refining his approach, minimizing losses, and lowering the danger to which he exposed himself.
At 28 years old, he was consistently making six-figure profits and made the decision to stop actively trading currencies.
To give back to the Nigerian community, Bade now spends his time educating prospective traders through seminars and online training programs.
20. James Simon
A well-known and intriguing name on the list of the richest forex traders is James Simons. Simons is a quantitative investor, hedge fund manager, and mathematician.
He is well-known for his work on the development of string theory and pattern recognition. He is also known as the world’s most intelligent billionaire.
In 1938, he was born in Newton, Massachusetts. When he was an adolescent, he worked at a store that sold gardening supplies. He attained a Ph.D. in mathematics at the age of 23, thanks to his tenacity, diligence, and drive.
He organized a group of academics, engineers, and scientists to pursue his love of mathematics and trading by creating an algorithm that could forecast changes in the price of any financial asset. And that serves as what we might refer to as the basis for quantitative analysis.
In addition to founding Renaissance Technologies, Simons is recognized as the richest trader in the world. The organization is a well-known hedge fund management company worldwide.
To become the world’s richest forex trader, he utilized mathematical models to uncover patterns. His charitable work involves giving $2.7 billion to numerous deserving causes. His estimated current net worth is $20 billion.
How To Succeed As A Forex Trader
After studying the world’s richest forex traders, a summary of their tips on how to become a better forex trader; or even how you can become one of the richest forex traders is that you should:
- Analyze the market frequently.
- Be particularly mindful of risk management.
- To prevent impulsive decisions that don’t work out, control your emotions.
- Plan your trading strategy and follow it. The strategy you pick will depend on your objectives and risk appetite. Numerous traders in the forex market are either day traders or position traders. If you don’t pick the right trading approach, you’ll suffer significant losses.
- Recognize your objectives. Do you want to trade every day to make money? Do you want to achieve long-term success?
- Before starting or ending a trade, always make sure you have the correct information.
- If you want to know how reliable your particular system is, you should always calculate your expectancy. The equation for Forex expectancy is as follows: Expectancy is calculated as (% Won * Average Win-(% Lost * Average Loss)).
- Create a positive feedback loop by putting your attention there in order to increase your self-assurance and start a success cycle.
- Take advantage of the weekend’s lack of Forex trading activity to study weekly charts for patterns and breaking news that may affect your trades.
- Keep detailed records of everything you do so you can see where your money is going and use them as a tool for learning.
- Spend some time practicing trading using practice accounts before engaging in actual trading.
- Be mindful of your trading limits and don’t trade more than you can afford to lose.
FAQs About The Richest Forex Traders
Who is the richest forex trader?
The title of “richest forex trader in the world” is attributed to George Soros. His short position against the pound earned him over $1 billion and caused the Black Wednesday crisis, making him famous for “breaking the Bank of England” in 1992. It is estimated that George Soros is worth more than $8 billion right now.
How much do top forex traders make?
Top forex traders can profit handsomely from the currency market, some even to the tune of billions. It’s important to keep in mind that these are the very best performers and do not represent the returns of the majority of online traders.
Can forex trading make you a millionaire?
Yes, you can become a millionaire through forex trading. However, you’ll need a strong strategy, top-notch risk management tools, and one of the top online brokers if you want to make huge profits.
Conclusion
It takes time and dedication to become a millionaire, but it is possible. To succeed, one must be willing to take calculated risks and make wise financial decisions.
Whether or not you become a millionaire right away, if you put money into forex trading with the intention of letting it grow, you will eventually see improvement and success.
