A question that we often get is “how many millionaires trade Forex?”. And by often, we really do mean it. Everybody wants to know what kind of opportunities await in this market, and how much of a chance they may have at getting a piece of this big pie. Luckily, there is more than enough to go around for everyone!
It is estimated, that the daily average volume of Forex trading is around $5.1 trillion, with over 10 million active traders on the market. With such huge numbers, it’s no surprise that Forex would be considered one of the most profitable ventures one may undertake. However, what many people aren’t aware of is the sheer wealth that some of the traders have earned, and the number of millionaires and billionaires that Forex has created. In fact, the opportunities are so abundant today, that now is the only time where there are so many Forex millionaires, that we even see some teenage Forex millionaires, which, in the past, would’ve been absolutely unheard-of.
Some of these millionaires and billionaires have earned so much money through Forex, that they represent the very model of the dreams that most of us get started with Forex trading for in the first place. However, this encouraging picture of people going from rags to riches can definitely lead someone into wrong thinking, by painting the picture of sunshine and rainbows when it comes to the realities of Forex trading in general.
The truth is, these people are simply outliers; the lucky – and often resourceful – few that have managed to achieve something unique and unlikely, which, for many people, simply can not be the case. It is estimated, that some 90% of all traders are likely to fail and lose money. While the statistics themselves paint a grim picture, it doesn’t mean that this is definitely what will happen to your trading endeavors. Your decisions definitely matter, and so does your preparation. This is the difference between these millionaires we’re about to discuss, and everybody else who simply rides the tide waiting for something to happen.
Today, we will be talking about some of the most famous and interesting Forex millionaires/billionaires and their stories of how they got there, what challenges they had to surpass before getting there, where they are now, and much more. The following is not a guide indicating as to how one should act to reach the same level of success. Rather, it’s something that can serve as an inspiration, and depict what kind of journeys the people at the top of the Forex world had to go through. And so, without further ado, here’s our ultimate millionaire Forex traders list.
George Soros (Net worth – $9.4 billion)
George Soros is a very interesting figure. Not only because of how much money he had made throughout the years or how much influence he has exerted over the world in the last decades but because of how he is regarded by the public itself. On the one hand, many believe him to be the most powerful man in the world; but on the other hand, a very huge part of the global population doesn’t even know who he is.
Soros is a Hungarian-American investor and financial magnate. Born in Budapest in 1930, Soros had to flee from his Nazi-occupied country, as he was of Jewish descent. It was in 1947 when Soros decided to flee and emigrate into the United Kingdom, where after some time he enrolled in the London School of Economics, where he graduated with a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Philosophy. Philosophy wasn’t to be his calling though, as the man, as it became apparent very soon, was born to be involved in trading and financial market.
Shortly after his graduation, before he would become the role model for all Forex market millionaires, Soros started working jobs in various merchant banks. As time went on and he became better and better at it, he started his first hedge fund, the “Double Eagle”, back in 1969. This has proven to be a profitable venture, giving Soros enough wealth and capital to start his second fund, the Soros Fund Management in 1970. Later, Double Eagle was renamed into Quantum Fund, which has continued to be highly successful and took Soros to the heights where he is today. At the time of its creation, Quantum Fund had only $12 million’s worth of assets under its management. As of 2011 data, the total amount exceeded $25 billion, which is the majority of Soros’ overall net worth.
Now, while founding and running a company that would exceed the management of $25 billion’s worth of money is nothing to sneeze at, there are dozens upon dozens of FX trading millionaires and billionaires who are not even in Forex, but ave way more than that in their net worth. Considering this, where do the claims of Soros having so much power come from? What compels people to accrue so much importance to the man, and regard him to be so powerful?
Soros’ respect, power, and high regard exist not because of his wealth and its size, but rather, his reputation as one of the most 
financially-savvy investors in the world, and his ability to exert immeasurable influence on the global financial market. One great example of this is the story from back in 1992 that occurred in London, and is now known as the “Black Wednesday of the UK Currency crisis”. The story of Black Wednesday is that of the financial crisis that the UK had to go through at the time when they failed to keep the pound rate lower than the limit mandated by the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). Due to this, the UK had to withdraw the GBP from ERM.
While there were some other factors at play as well, many believe that it was precisely Soros that has to take all the credit/blame for this occurrence, after his short-selling of over $10 billion’s worth of GBP. Due to this, Soros earned the nickname of “The Man Who Broke the Bank of England”. Ever since this occurrence, Soros has been regarded as one of the biggest authorities in the world when it comes to the financial markets by Forex traders millionaires and billionaires alike. To this day, his opinions are held in such high regard, that even his statements are enough to completely change the course of the markets’ performance; so much so that many people believe that he can destroy the economies of whole countries, which, to be fair, he has arguably done at least once before, as we have seen.
Beyond this, Soros is also very heavily involved in the global political scene. Or, one could say, is involved and influential there without many people being aware to the extent of his influences, which is one of the many reasons as to why many consider him to be so influential in the first place. To date, Soros has funded and still continues to fund, dozens of different NGOs, many of which are directly participating in political affairs. Thanks to Soros’ huge wealth, as well as his impeccable knowledge of the financial markets and geopolitics, it shouldn’t be too hard to understand why he is held in such regard.
Bruce Kovner (Net Worth – $5.4 billion)
Bruce Kovner is an American investor and philanthropist born in 1945, with a very extensive and decorated experience and career in the financial market. Just like Soros, Kovner is a hedge fund manager, and quite an able and successful one at that. This is very impressive when you consider Kovner’s humble beginnings. Despite never having to necessarily live in poverty, Kovner didn’t “have it easy”. The reason for him becoming a millionaire through Forex trading is the fact that he has always been a hard worker and had always been very dedicated to learning, studying, and constantly growing as a person.
In his student days, he was a Merit Scholar, had assumed various leadership positions in his university and school programs, and was known to be an exceptional basketball player. But all of this was a drop in the bucket compared to the potential that the man turned out to have. Kovner was able to utilize this potential to the maximum after he went to Harvard College in 1962. In Harvard, Kovner studied political economy, which, as we can obviously see, paid off extremely well for him. In college, he was considered a dedicated student who was a high achiever.
Kovner kept studying at Harvard until 1970 but discontinued before he could finish his Ph.D. At this point in time, before beginning his direct involvement in the financial market, Kovner kept trying out a lot of different things, such as working on political campaigns, writing, learning the harpsichord, etc. At one point, he even worked as a cab driver to support his family, which is definitely impressive, when you consider what was in store for his future. Not too long from this point on, he discovered commodity trading, which, obviously, was to change his life forever.
Kovner’s very first steps in the world of trading were quite curious. The very first trade that he ever made was back in 1977, with the money from his Mastercard credit card, opening trade on soybean futures. Obviously, this was to be quite a risky endeavor, but it seemed to turn out well for Kovner, making $40,000 in profits. These profits were not to last though, as it dropped to $23,000 as Kovner waited too long to sell. Kovner later said that this was one of the traders where he learned the most from, with the most important message being to never wait too long before selling. Kovner was to heed this well into the future, and it became an important part of his trading strategy.
As time went by, Kovner’s knowledge of the world of trading and the financial market, in general, kept increasing, and he started understanding the secrets of Forex millionaires. Kovner soon started working at various high-level trading companies such as Commodities Corporation, which later became a part of Goldman Sachs. At these jobs, Kovner was known to be one of the best, as he has made millions upon millions for his companies, and was always known to be one of the most logical and objective traders.
This was to be a recurring theme with his trading career, as Kovner is regarded to be one of the more logical traders who rely on lots of research and various data points, and utilizing this info to its fullest possible extent with long-term and slower approach. This is in contrast with the likes of George Soros, who employ more of a short-term approach, being quick to get in and quick to get out.
As time went by and Kovner’s knowledge and understanding of the market kept increasing, along with the respect and regard that he had from his peers and other FX millionaires. Kovner eventually founded his first hedge fund company in 1983, the Caxton Associates. The latter has proven to be a very profitable and successful endeavor, having managed over $14 billion’s worth of capital in its heyday. Kovner would retire from his position of CEO from the company back in 2011, and today, the firm manages about $3.7 billion in assets.
Not counting tons of different philanthropic activities that Kovner has been involved in, besides Caxton, he has also served as the director of Synta Pharmaceuticals from 2002-2016, and currently serves as the chairman of CAM Capital, which he established back in 2012 to manage his and his partners’ investments and traders. To date, he enjoys huge respect from his peers and some of the top Forex millionaires in the world and remains to be one of the exemplary people on showing what is possible in the world of financial trading.
Bill Lipschutz (Net Worth – $300 million)
Like the others on this list, Bill Lipschutz is one of the most well-known figures in the world of financial trading. He serves as even more of an inspiration for the aspiring young Forex trading millionaires, considering how quickly he stared reaching success and riches when he first got started with his trading career. Although, as we’re going to see down below, he had a bit of a “head start” in his beginning stages, Lipschutz is still a great inspiration, as whatever he has achieved, he achieved it through hard work and dedication, and fully utilizing whatever tools he had at his disposal.
Lipschutz was born and raised in Farmingdale, New York. He received education at Cornell University in Ithaka, New York, where he got Bachelor’s degrees for Architecture and Finances. At university, Bill was a great student, always performing well and getting high grades. One of this favorite subjects was math, which was definitely one of the signs that would point towards the direction he would later take. Later, Lipschutz also enrolled in the Jonhson School of Management and got an MBA in finance. Having invested so much time in educating himself, Lipschutz was now clearly ready to actualize whatever talent he had.
At some point in time, way before fulfilling his millionaire Forex trading destiny, one of the key things that had a huge impact on Lipschutz’s life, 
happened. When Lipschutz’s grandmother passed away, she left him $12,000’s worth of stocks and shares that were split in over 100 different locations. Lipschutz had a different plan for this inheritance, and wanted to consolidate and concentrate all of them in one single location; which he shortly did, albeit at a large cost in the form of commissions.
Lipschutz quickly started putting this capital to use and started making small moves on the financial market, trading here and there. He also made an effort to learn as much as he could on the way, find out what was working and what was not, and making corrections as needed. This quickly started paying off, and over time, he managed to take this starting capital of $12,000 all the way to $250,000. While this was quite an impressive result and served as a great motivation, unfortunately, Lipschutz lost all of this capital after one poor judgment that cost him everything. Lipschutz mentioned, that this was definitely one of the major checkpoints in his career that taught him a lot.
At the time when Lipschutz was studying for his Master’s degree, he got an opportunity to work at one of the most prestigious investment banks back then – the Salomon Brothers. Here, whatever talent and capabilities Lipschutz had, could be actualized to their fullest potential. Soon after Lipschutz joining the company, the management decided to establish a department of Foreign exchanges, where Lipschutz quickly became one of the top members/performers.
As time went on, Lipschutz’s skills kept increasing, and so did the results that he delivered. Over time he was soon regarded as the best in the company by many and had a reputation for having a calm, collected, and logical approach to trading, utilizing as much of the information and available tools as possible. This kind of an approach paid in a major way for Lipschutz, and he started making huge amounts of money for the company, and, of course, for himself. At its peak, Bill’s annual earnings were estimated to be over $300 million, making him one of the leading young Forex millionaires ever. Delivering these kinds of results, it didn’t take too long for Lipschutz to advance through the ranks, and he soon became the director of the company.
As of today, Lipschutz is still widely-known and respected as one of the most knowledgeable and innovative traders we have ever seen. He has been working as the director of Portfolio Management at the Hathersage Capital Management company ever since 1995 and continues to apply his invaluable knowledge to deliver results.
What we can learn from these Forex trading millionaires
After reading this guide, chances are high, that there were two possible outcomes for you – either you were inspired, or you were a bit overwhelmed. If the latter is the case for you, it is totally understandable, as when you consider the sheer size of the wealth that these millionaires and billionaires possess, then it may seem like it’s completely outside of your reality to reach it. However, what you need to understand is that the Forex traders who became millionaires and billionaires were not born millionaires and billionaires. These people had to work hard and maintain impeccable focus and dedication to get to where they are now.
Sure, there are tons of examples where people had a huge head start due to favorable starting conditions due to outside factors, but for every such person, there are way more who had it way worse and still reached huge success. Soros had to escape his homeland due to Nazi oppression, and start living in a completely different country, where he became one of the successful people of all time. Prior to making his fortune, Kovner had to drive a cab to support his family. You get the idea. The one thing to remember is that there are tons of opportunities to take in this market, and tons of people have the potential to become millionaires through Forex trading, Those who are willing to work hard and show dedication, can, and will, be successful.