Forex market is a vast place with many opportunities. Learn valuable lessons by reading the stories of some of the biggest forex traders in history.

forex millionaire stories

In the context of trading, the biggest indicator of success is measured by how much profit you can generate throughout your trading career. If you're able to maintain consistency and generate high profits, then there's a high chance that you're going to fulfill your dream of becoming a successful trader. Achieving such a huge milestone will also give you emotional success in a sense of joy, pride, and fulfillment.

Unfortunately, achieving such goals is not easy. In fact, only a small percentage of traders actually made it to the top and enjoy their hard work success. For that reason, many big traders have come forward and shared their inspiring stories with the world. Digging into their stories will give you valuable insight into how they work and what makes them able to get to where they are today.

Some of the successful traders that will be discussed this time include:

  • George Soros
  • Stanley Druckenmiller
  • Paul Tudor Jones
  • Bill Lipschutz
  • Michael Marcus
  • Andrew Krieger

What is the story of their journey? Let's take a closer look at the six most sensational forex billionaire stories below.

 

1. George Soros

George Soros is known as one of the most famous philanthropists and an unparalleled forex speculator. He was born in 1930 under the name of György Schwartz, in Budapest, Eastern Europe. He then had to change his name to George Soros in order to hide from the Nazi occupation during wartime.

At the age of 17, George migrated to England. He then began to learn philosophy and developed an interest in economics when he worked at the Singer and Friedlander Bank in 1954.

George Soros

Afterward, he worked as an analyst and arbitrage trader on the European stock market at several Wall Street banks and institutions in New York before he created his own fund called Soros Fund and later renamed the Quantum Fund.

Due to his passion for philosophy and humanity, Soros funds management has also been working on various philanthropic activities in more than 100 countries now. The funding is mostly related to the development of education, human rights, public health, business, and freedom of speech in various areas around the globe.

However, his fame didn't start until George Soros became "the man who broke the Bank of England". The strategy involves the act of buying low and selling high when prices would start changing. Some people would see this as a terribly risky decision, but George braced for the risks and took advantage of Black Wednesday in September 1992.

Long story short, in October 1990, the United Kingdom decided to join the "Exchange Rate Mechanism" and its membership in the EMS. The Mechanism basically obliged the participants to defend a central exchange rate and intervene in the market if necessary. The UK joined the system in the hope to reduce inflation and bring stability to exporting companies by controlling the exchange rate and limit its volatility.

Seeing this opportunity, George decided to go short and sell $10 billion in pound sterling, causing the value to inevitably drop. On September 16, 1992, the UK officially withdrew its national currency from the mechanism because it couldn't maintain the required trading range. George successfully secured at least $1.1 billion because of this transaction.

As one of the 30 richest people in the world at the moment, George Soros is indeed gifted with the ability to see what others couldn't see. Based on his story, we can gather that it's incredibly important for forex traders to get information about the market at all times.

This includes keeping up with the market trends and the latest economic-political news. Soros was able to seize the opportunity because he didn't panic and had been observing the market for some time. These well-thought decisions are what led him to be this successful.

 

2. Stanley Druckenmiller

Stanley Druckenmiller's success story comes from being the former right-hand man of George Soros. He was born on June 14 in 1953, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He started his career as an oil analyst for the Pittsburg National Bank and now he's widely known as one of the best forex traders in the world. In 1981, he managed to develop his own fund called the Duquesne Capital Management hedge fund.

George Soros, who was quite famous himself at the time, saw Druckenmiller's ability to read the market and decided to make him the president of the Quantum Fund, replacing Victor Niederhoffer. From 1988 to 2000, Druckenmiller worked with Soros as the lead portfolio manager within the Quantum Fund. He also played a huge role in the case of Black Wednesday in 1992.

Stanley Druckenmiller

After 12 years working with Soros, Druckenmiller decided to take a leave and continue managing his own fund. Duquesne Capital Management remained in operation until 2010.

During that time, the fund was able to give breathtaking returns of over 30% on average, even throughout the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Although he never exactly published his preferred trading strategy, he has stated several times that his analysis mostly focuses on the macroeconomic context.

As an economist, he likes to use macroeconomic (top-down), political, and social analysis strategies followed by long-term projections. He likes to save his capital and only trade when the price is profitable.

Contrary to popular belief, a part of Druckenmiller's investment philosophy involves putting all his eggs in the same basket. This indicates that if you're very sure of something and the chance of losing is low, then go for it. However, keep in mind that you must consider your plan before you start trading seriously.

 

3. Paul Tudor Jones

Paul Tudor Jones is one of the most outstanding American forex traders and hedge fund managers of the past century. He was born in 1954 in Tennessee, United States. After getting his degree in economics from the University of Memphis, Paul started trading forex in 1976 and got hired by the broker E.F Hutton.

After two profitable years, he applied to study at Harvard Business School but then decided that school won't be enough to teach him about his dream job.

Paul Tudor Jones

Instead, he built his own fund called Tudor Investor Corporation. The company became involved in various trading activities that covered currencies, securities, and commodities.

Until 2008, Paul never had a single bad year. Even during the famous market crash in October 1987, which is widely known as Black Monday, the company successfully managed to make a huge profit of 62% from short positions.

Thanks to technical analysis and historical data, Paul was able to predict the crash a little while before it happened. He decided to massively short US stocks and made more than $100 million in 24 hours.

This brilliant move of his was made into a documentary film called "Trader", which aired shortly after Black Monday happened. However, he did everything in his power to ban those broadcasts by buying as many copies as possible so that his strategy wouldn't be exposed.

 

4. Bill Lipschutz

Among the most successful forex traders in the world, there's Bill Lipschutz. He was born in New York, United States, and has quickly shown great interest in math. His love for mathematics then led him to earn a BFA in Architectural Design at Cornell University and an MBA in Finance from the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University.

Interestingly, Bill's career in forex happened rather accidentally. When he was still in college, Bill inherited $12,000 worth of stocks and started to trade with them. At that time, he chose to spend a lot of his time in the library, researching anything related to the market. At a fairly young age, Bill managed to make $250,000 in profit, which is quite impressive.

Unfortunately, this success did not last long because he made a bad decision and lost the capital due to high leverage. But instead of giving up, he got even more interested in trading and was eager to start over. In 1982, he joined the Solomon Brothers as a full-time merchant and founded the Foreign Exchange department.

He then became the best forex trader there, generating around $300 million per year by 1985. However, after a while, he began feeling the company becoming too big and doesn't feel like a cultural institution anymore, so he took early retirement.

Afterward, he worked as the President and CEO of the North Tower Group, which was a subsidiary of the Merril Lynch Corporation. Not long after, he managed to build his own fund called Rowayton Capital Management in 1991.

He was the President and CEO of the company until 1995. He then built another fund called the Hathersage Capital Management in 1995 with his former Cornell friends. The company did so well that it won the Best Macro Hedge Fund award in 2018.

 

5. Michael Marcus

Michael Marcus is the founding member of the Commodities Corporation Company and is considered one of the best forex traders in the world. During his prime time, he managed to generate $300 million in German marks.

Surprisingly, Marcus didn't make it right away. Once he graduated as a psychology major, he knew immediately that he was interested in the stock market. So he decided to hire someone as his account supervisor that would give him advice in his early trading journey.

The man claimed that he was able to double the money in a span of two weeks. Sadly, the plan failed and Marcus ended up losing everything. Refusing to stand back, Marcus gathered funds from friends, family, and his own resources to start trading again. He still ended up losing a lot because he had no strong basic trading rules.

In 1971, he met Ed Seykota, who then became his mentor. Learning from Seykota's trend-following strategy, Marcus successfully made a small fortune. Part of his success was his understanding of fundamental trading rules like cutting losses and riding profitable positions.

The rest was attributed to the 1970s commodities bull market, which was excellent to trend follower traders. In 1974, he was recruited by a commodity company as a trader. The company gave him $30,000 as a trading fund and about 10 years later, Marcus managed to turn it into an $80 million profit.

 

6. Andrew Krieger

Andrew Krieger is another trader who has successfully achieved a level of success during a market fall. He is considered one of the most successful forex traders in history, but unlike others who got their stories published in various media broadcasts, Krieger chose to live in the shadows and keep a low profile.

After graduating from Wharton School of Business, Krieger joined the famous Solomon Brothers but decided to leave after a short while. Once he left, he became a part of the Bankers Trust and earned huge popularity as a top-performing trader due to his aggressive tactics. The company rewarded him by increasing his capital limit to $700 million, a lot more than the standard limit of $50 million.

He managed to save the bank from collapsing on Black Monday in 1987 by selling short on the New Zealand Dollar (NZD) at a leverage of 400:1. As a result, he was able to generate $300 million in profit for the company.

andre krieger

After making such a profitable move, Soros immediately took an interest in him and offered him a job. At the time, Krieger was not happy with the Banker's Trust because they only gave him a small fee for his operations.

The company gave him 1% of profit (equal to around $3 million) and Krieger thought the amount was "insignificant". So in 1988, he decided to leave Banker's Trust and joined the George Soros Foundation.

It turned out that Krieger only worked for Soros for a few months. He then began living in the shadows and avoided the press. Once he was back, he created his own agency called the Capital Holding Corporation, which advised clients and managed assets worth $500 million.

He also built several other firms such as Northbridge Capital Management, Krieger & Associates Ltd, and others. Now he still participates in the commodity and currency market but does so anonymously.

 

The Bottom Line: What We Can Learn

From the success stories above, we can clearly see that each successful forex trader has a tale to tell. Each story is inspiring in its own way and has valuable lessons that we might not get anywhere else. They teach us to be consistent and passionate about the job.

As you can see, it's possible to be successful without having to come from a privileged family. The forex market might be volatile and hard to come through, but it's open to anyone and offers the same opportunity for any trader.

In the end, being successful in forex trading is not all about learning trading strategies and making profits, but also learning to commit and be passionate about it. After all, it is the love of trading that keeps a trader afloat during the strongest of the storms.

Developing skills and passion for trading is the best combination to be successful in the forex market. You should remember that your trading point of view could determine whether you are a successful trader or a failed one.