Richest Forex Traders

The richest forex traders didn’t achieve success overnight or get rich by chance, and any trader can learn a lot from their dedication, skill, and wealth of financial market knowledge. In this guide, we list our pick of the 10 richest forex traders in the world with details of their net worth and how they made their money.

To improve your forex trading performance, we recommend choosing a broker with excellent education, such as Pepperstone, IC Markets or Forex.com.

List of 10 Richest Forex Traders 2024

#	Forex Trader	Estimated Net Worth
1	Ray Dailo	$19 Billion
2	Bruce Kovener	$7.5 Billion
3	George Soros	$7 Billion
4	Joe Lewis	$6 Billion
5	Andy Krieger	$3 Billion
6	Bill Lipschutz	$2 Billion
7	Ref Wayne	$500 Million
8	Richard Dennis	$350 Million
9	Nassim Nicholas Taleb	$100 Million
10	Kathy Lien	$5 Million

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1. Ray Dalio

Estimated Net Worth: $19 Billion

Ray Dalio is often referred to as the richest forex trader in the world. Dalio’s best-known early success came from a $300 investment in Northeast Airlines shares, achieving triple returns when the airline was acquired by Howard Hughes. He has also seen large successes in currency markets.

Background

Ray founded Bridgewater Associates in 1975 after graduating from Havard Business School and working in investment practice. Dalio successfully forecasted the global recession of 2007, driving Bridgewater to the forefront of the businesses that performed well during the financial crisis.

The company is now one of the largest hedge funds in the world with an estimated $150 billion in assets under management (AUM). Its investment approach and strategies span multiple markets, with a focus on forex and fixed income.

Strategy

Dalio is a huge advocate of portfolio diversification. This experienced investor focuses on creating an appropriate return-to-risk ratio to mitigate the dangers of volatile markets. Explicitly, Ray suggests that an approach of trading 15 uncorrelated instruments can reduce portfolio risk in the region by 80%.

Other principles he supports that got him up in the rankings include long-term cycles, cause-and-effect relationships, and bias avoidance.

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2. Bruce Kovener

Estimated Net Worth: $7.5 Billion

Bruce Stanley Kovner is one of the richest forex traders in the USA. He is an American hedge fund manager, philanthropist and the founder and chairman of Caxton Associates.

He is also known as the ‘Market Wizard’ for his automated trading systems that concentrate on forex and forex futures.

Background

Kovner spent $3000 on his credit card in 1977 and invested in copper and interest-rate futures, returning $1000 in profits. In the decades since then, his fortunes and net worth have soared to make him one of the richest forex traders in the world.

Strategy

Kovener implies a trend-following strategy with suitable risk management is the key to success. One of his golden rules is to never risk more than can be emotionally tolerated – a lesson we advise all forex traders to follow.

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3. George Soros

Estimated Net Worth: $7 Billion

George Soros is one of the most famous – and richest – forex traders of all time. Soros has used some of his riches to create the Open Society Foundations, initially to help modernize his home country of Hungary, and then to spread democratic ideas around the world.

His estimated net worth is in the region of $7 billion, though he is believed to have transferred many billions to charitable organizations.

Background

Born in Hungary, Soros was educated at the London School of Economics before working as a hedge fund manager from 1969.

In 1992, Soros shorted the British pound following his speculation that the British government had undervalued the currency. The bet came off and reportedly made Soros a profit of $1 billion or more, earning him the moniker ‘the man who broke the Bank of England’.

Strategy

George Soros’ strategy revolves around trading short-term positions. His successful approaches use huge one-way speculations of currency rates based on macroeconomic analysis.

Soros is thought to follow a ‘Global Macro Strategy’, which aims to achieve a full view of the global economy using fundamental analysis, rather than focusing on a specific country or region.

While difficult for time-starved forex traders to emulate, we think Soros’ strategy serves as an excellent illustration of how interconnected markets are and how a single asset is influenced by an expansive web of others.

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4. Joe Lewis

Estimated Net Worth: $6 Billion

Joe Lewis is one of the richest forex traders in the UK. Lewis’s main success in currency trading came from his involvement in bets against the British pound (GBP) in the 1990s.

Background

Significant short positions by Lewis and a broad team of traders saw the pound crash out of the European exchange rate mechanism in 1992, costing the Treasury an estimated £3.4 billion and creating huge returns for Lewis.

Strategy

The strategy that kickstarted a successful trading career for Lewis was very simple; aggressive short-selling of a currency when it’s in a tough position.

We see short-selling as a risky strategy in general, so traders who want to try their hand at it would do well to study the past successes of a master like Lewis.

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5. Andy Krieger

Estimated Net Worth: $3 Billion

Andy Krieger earns a high place in our list of top richest forex traders in the world as the mastermind of one of the most famous trades ever opened.

Background

After earning an MBA from the Wharton School of Finance, Krieger took a position with Salomon Brothers before moving on to Bankers Trust. There, he successfully determined that the New Zealand dollar (NZD) was expensive and shorted the Kiwi for the US Dollar following the 1987 Black Monday stock market drop.

This single trade alone generated $300 million for the firm, with his estimate coming through of a 10% value drop.

Strategy

Of course, Krieger wasn’t trading forex in the small volumes you would typically expect from a retail investor, but he did possess a few important strategy components: a robust approach to exit the market at the right time, fundamental analysis of the currency markets, and emotional stability to maintain a cool head with such a significant stake at risk.

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6. Bill Lipschutz

Estimated Net Worth: $2 Billion

During his peak, Bill Lipschutz was ranked among the top 5 forex traders in the world. His successful career was almost derailed following a catastrophic trading decision that wiped out the profits from his initial stake, but Lipschutz managed to turn things around and sources suggest his net worth today is in the region of $2 billion.

Background

Lipschutz’s investment career started with a $12,000 inheritance stake. He was commencing education at Cornell University at the time and successfully generated $250,000 from this capital. However, he lost almost all this equity with some bad decision-making.

He went on to redeem himself when he joined Salomon Brothers, however, producing $300 million worth of trades per year for the firm and specializing in G10 currencies before founding Hathersage Capital Management.

Strategy

Bill Lipschutz’s forex trading strategy is based on the risk-to-reward concept. Lipschutz believes a 3:1 reward-to-risk ratio for short-term forex positions is the best. Applying stop loss and take profit limits are key to the strategy, and can prevent greed and emotion impacting trades.

While we think traders should try different forex strategies and see which one works best for their individual style, we feel it is often important to set strict ground rules as Lipschutz does and encourage all traders to follow his lead in risk management.

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7. Ref Wayne

Estimated Net Worth: $500 Million

Refiloe Nkele, also known as Ref Wayne, is one of the richest forex traders in South Africa. Today, he is a renowned spokesman for currency trading and entrepreneurship as well as the best-selling author of the book ‘The Art of Trading’.

Background

Trading expert David Schwartz spotted Wayne when he was a fresh-faced 16-year-old with an interest in forex trading and a hunger to learn. Schwartz tutored Ref into a successful investor, turning over $1 million in his first three years.

With a desire to push his knowledge further into the crypto field, Wayne became a key associate in the launch of the African Forex Institute (AFI) as well as Africa’s digital currency, Pipcoin.

Strategy

Though his career trading forex is not the longest, Wayne demonstrated from a young age the desire to learn and create a successful career path for himself. He was destined to prove that young adults without a good education can achieve a similar fortune to US forex traders.

Wayne is a strong advocate that forex trading in South Africa can strengthen the economic livelihoods of people living in the country, and we see him as an inspirational figure showing that age and background are no barriers to success in the forex trading world.

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8. Richard Dennis

Estimated Net Worth: $350 Million

In the early 1980s, Richard Dennis gained fame in the forex market for his success turning less than $5000 into more than $100 million. His accomplishments have brought him a net worth in the region of $350 million.

Background

Dennis began his career as an assistant on the trading floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange before studying philosophy at DePaul University. His background initially was trading soft commodities, before he grew his portfolio to include currencies and indices.

He is perhaps best known for his ‘Turtles’ experiment, in which he tested trading theories with a team of novice investors.

Strategy

Dennis’ techniques look slightly different from other successful forex traders, with his focus on holding positions for the long term to ride out market fluctuations.

His strategy focuses primarily on following trends using a mix of fundamental and technical analysis. His concept, the ‘Turtle Trading System’ highlights position sizes, entry and exit rules, and risk-management ideas to identify and monitor long-term market trends.

He successfully taught a group of novice investors using this technique and they went on to generate $175 million in just a few years, an estimated 80% return on their investment.

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9. Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Estimated Net Worth: $70-$100 Million

Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a renowned Lebanese intellectual and forex trader, who is best known for his skepticism of traditional finance models. Taleb achieved substantial profits betting against the Fannie Mae corporation in the late 2000’s financial crisis and has received several accolades and honorary doctorates for his ideas.

Background

Taleb studied at the University of Paris and the University of Pennsylvania. He went on to be a mathematician, hedge fund manager and derivatives trader, working at some of the largest banks, including Credit Suisse where he was an arbitrage trader for currencies.

Taleb retired from trading in 2004 to focus on being an author, but not before making a name for himself in the finance world.

Strategy

Taleb is renowned for two main strategy concepts: Black Swans and the Barbell Strategy.

The ‘Black Swan’ is Taleb’s idea that using past performance and trend patterns is not suitable for making educated trading decisions. This, Taleb says, is because highly improbable ‘outlier’ events will eventually take place and will have an extreme impact on markets.

With this in mind, Taleb believes the most robust plan uses double-weighted execution, with 90–95% of investment funds being held in ‘relatively safe’ positions to protect against so-called Black Swans. The remaining capital should be invested in higher-risk positions or volatile currency pairs.

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10. Kathy Lien

Estimated Net Worth: $5 Million

Kathy Lien’s successful forex trading career has seen her co-found education services and become an author of best-selling books including ‘Day Trading and Swing Trading the Currency Market’.

Background

Kathy achieved a degree in finance and economics from New York University’s Stern School of Business. Her career in currency trading started at the age of 18 at JPMorgan Chase. As of 2023, she is the Managing Director of FX Strategy at BK Asset Management.

Strategy

Kathy Lien’s FX trading strategy focuses on understanding the global economy and how it affects currency prices. She is known for her expertise in analyzing news events and economic data releases to identify trading opportunities.

As many of our top-ranked forex brokers provide excellent market analysis and news updates, we see Lien’s strategy as an excellent one for retail traders to study and learn from.

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Bottom Line

Some of the richest currency traders in the world have started with small stakes in the forex market, and robust strategies with suitable risk management systems have seen many of them earn in the millions, and even billions.

Yet while these success stories are good for inspiration, we recommend practicing what you learn in a demo account. Also make use of the excellent educational materials offered by the top forex brokers, such as Pepperstone, IC Markets and Forex.com.

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