Who is the best forex trader?

Every forex trader has the same main goal, regardless of experience level: to become a successful trader. In this article, we highlight top forex traders who achieved great success to offer you inspiration and motivation. In addition, we will give you some useful tips on how to become a successful forex trader yourself. Who is the world’s most successful trader? Which are the top 6 forex traders? Let’s have a look.

Can everyone become a successful trader?

How many people who enter the currency markets go on to become successful forex traders?

The number of people who become the most successful traders is incredibly small. This is in comparison to the number of unsuccessful ones, as you may have heard from various statistics.

However, because the forex market is decentralised, it is challenging to find reliable data on this particular subject.

Most people quit trading as soon as they start losing money above a certain threshold. According to data from forex and CFD firms, it is uncommon for people to become exceptionally successful forex traders.

However, there is little question that the best forex traders are a very small group.  

Successful traders share key trading skills

It is evident from examining well-known and successful traders that they all tend to share certain characteristics.

It is evident from examining well-known and successful traders that they all tend to share certain characteristics. They show discipline, follow a trading plan, and make smart decisions based on logic rather than emotion. They also understand market dynamics and manage risk effectively. These are all great traits for trading success in the long run.

You will inevitably make mistakes and lose money as a result.
Even so, it’s crucial to grow as a forex trader by learning from those mistakes.

Let’s see which professional traders are the world’s most successful forex traders.

The best forex traders in the world

George Soros

We begin our list of the world’s top forex traders by looking at George Soros, one of the most recognised individuals in the history of forex trading. Soros is likely to be the subject of any discussion about the best forex trader of all time.

Soros is one of the greatest investors in history. He is renowned for spotting market inefficiencies and taking advantage of them. He does this with big, highly leveraged trades. Also he applies his extraordinary grasp of economic trends to guide these decisions.

When he allegedly made over $1 billion from short-selling the British pound (GBP) in 1992, he cemented his legendary reputation and became known as “the man who broke the Bank of England.”

The UK was a member of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) prior to Soros’ windfall, which essentially ensured that the government would implement a policy to maintain the value of the pound relative to other European currencies within a specific range.

Since interest rates were above 13% and inflation was high in the UK at the time, Soros and other profitable forex traders thought the ERM was maintaining the UK’s currency at an unnaturally high level.

In what is now known as Black Wednesday, the UK finally left the ERM and let their currency float once more, which led to a decline in the value of the pound.

How George Soros Became One of the Top Forex Traders Ever

In what will surely go down as one of the greatest forex trades ever, Soros had accumulated a massive short position against the pound worth over $10 billion by this point, solidifying his place among the world’s top forex traders.

“I am only rich because I know when I’m wrong,” Soros famously remarked. Being able to acknowledge your mistakes is a crucial component of being one of the top forex traders, as this quote illustrates.

Being able to acknowledge when one is mistaken and act quickly to correct the error is an essential skill for a successful Forex trader. Over time, this helps successful traders minimise their losses. With an estimated net worth of $8.6 billion, George Soros is undoubtedly one of the wealthiest forex traders in the world and has risen to the top of the list of the best traders to follow.

Paul Tudor Jones

Paul Tudor Jones, one of the world’s most successful and wealthy traders with an estimated net worth of over $7 billion, is undoubtedly one of the greatest Forex traders of all time.

After graduating from the University of Virginia in 1976, he started trading cotton futures at the New York Cotton Exchange. However, he lost his job after dozing off at his desk after a night of partying with his friends!

After that, he worked as a commodities broker before starting Tudor Investment Corporation in 1980. The company trades and makes investments in a variety of assets, such as stocks, commodities, and currencies.

Jones’ prediction and shorting of the 1987 Black Monday crash, was one of his first and biggest successes. He reportedly made $100 million and tripled his money!

Stanley Druckenmiller

For more than a decade, Stanley Druckenmiller was George Soros’ coworker at Soros’ Quantum Fund and regarded him as his mentor.

Since then, Druckenmiller has built a distinguished career for himself, managing billions of dollars for his company, Duquesne Capital. He has unquestionably established himself as one of the world’s top forex traders.

In addition to helping Soros achieve his famous Black Wednesday success, Druckenmiller set a record of remarkable profits with Duquesne that continued until his retirement, and his current net worth is estimated to be over $3 billion.

According to Druckenmiller, the concept of capital preservation is the cornerstone of his profitable trading strategy for generating long-term gains. When his trades are doing well, he aggressively chases profits; when they aren’t, he quickly cuts losses.

The core of Druckenmiller’s approach is the importance of minimising harm when you are mistaken and maximising opportunities when you are correct. “There are a lot of shoes on the shelf; wear only the ones that fit,” Druckenmiller said in an interview for the well-known book “The New Market Wizards.”

Bill Lipschutz

Bill Lipschutz is a legend in the forex trading community, well-known for his inspirational trading journey that began in the 1970s while he was a college student.

Lipschutz inherited $12,000 while he was a student after his grandmother passed away. Lipschutz started trading with this money and, astonishingly, made $250,000 out of it.

But Lipschutz lost the whole $250,000 because of one poor choice!

That would have been sufficient for many people to permanently quit trading, but Lipschutz, one of the top Forex traders in the world, was not one of those people.

Also he kept trading and, as part of a training program, joined Salomon Brothers after graduating. He was asked to work in their Foreign Exchange Department shortly after, and by 1985, he was earning an average of $300 million a year.

He established Heathersage Capital Management, a G10 currency trading firm, in 1995. Like many other successful forex traders, Lipschutz views the market as a highly psychological place where price action is influenced by perceptions just as much as by fundamentals.

Lipschutz also shares Stanley Druckenmiller’s belief that one must capitalise on the times when one is correct in order to be a successful forex trader. In reference to trading, he famously stated, “You have to figure out how to make money from being right only 20 to 30 percent of the time.”

Lipschutz’s tale of perseverance and his capacity to bounce back from such a severe setback early in his career to become a profitable trader earns him a spot on our list.

Michael Marcus

One of the world’s top forex traders, Michael Marcus, is well-known for allegedly converting $30,000 into $80 million in just 20 years!

In addition, he was a founding member of the Commodities Corporation Company. After receiving instruction from the famous Ed Seykota, he went on to coach Bruce Kovner, another outstanding trader.

Marcus emphasises that patience is one of the most crucial traits of a successful trader. “Always bet less than 5 percent of your money on any one idea,” he once said, underscoring the importance of sound money management. It will take a long time for you to lose your money if you are wrong more than twenty times.

Best Forex Traders: Conclusion

Becoming the best of the best, or a quite successful forex trader will require a lot of hard work, determination and patience. Building a strong psychology, expanding your skills through various online courses or focusing on educating yourself on the markets should keep you focussed and grounded.  

While none of these forex traders here became rich overnight, they were also exceptionally talented, smart and focused on working and developing their skills.

We hope that this article provided some useful insights and have encouraged you to explore the forex market. You can do so with a trusted broker like IronFX by opening a risk-free demo trading account.

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Disclaimer: This information is not considered investment advice or an investment recommendation, but instead a marketing communication. IronFX is not responsible for any data or information provided by third parties referenced, or hyperlinked, in this communication.