5 Famous Traders and the Trades that Made Them

While there are many successful traders and investors worldwide, it would take a book to write about all of them. Below, we have selected the five traders that, we think, make for an interesting read.   

So without further ado, let’s see which traders made the cut.  

George Soros  

He takes the title of one of the most successful forex traders of all time. Nicknamed ‘the man who broke the Bank of England’ after one of his successful trades, George Soros bet against Pound Sterling in 1992 and banked approximately $1 billion in profits as a result.  

The famous transaction occurred a couple of days before the British pound depreciated. Predicting that the government would devalue the currency, Soros leveraged his hedge fund and sold billions of pounds before repurchasing them at a devaluated rate.  

Paul Tudor James  

This trader is synonymous with an event called Black Monday – the stock market crash of 1987. In 1987, he shorted some stock and made a profit of approximately $100 million. The successful trade landed him the position as the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Allegedly there were similarities between the 1929 and 1987 circumstances, which pointed to a market crash.   

Nicholas Darvas  

He was a ballroom dancer by profession and a self-taught investor that banked over $2 million on the stock market. His trading experience began with many losses, but he also discovered his ‘Box Theory’ as he gained experience. The Box Theory is a trading strategy that focuses on stocks with trade volume. The strategy is still used today in rising markets and bullish sectors.   

Peter Schiff  

This trader became famous for predicting the stock market crash of 2007 – 2010. He began to warn people of an imminent economic collapse as early as 2006. In 2007, he published a book explaining why the severe imbalance between demand and supply in US economic policy.   

He is more famous as a financial advisor and TV persona rather than a trader. Nonetheless, he did something that many couldn’t – foresee the approaching storm, and for that, he earns a place on this list.   

Simon Cawkwell  

This famous share-trader is famous for shorting company stock before the stock prices take a dive. He is also known as Evil Knievel, and one of his well-known trades is shorting the stock of Northern Rock Bank before it went into administration.  

In the unfortunate consequences of the September 11 attacks, he made roughly £1 million profit from shorting stocks.