No because it's an all-time list and you aren't in it until you retire or die with your money intact.
That's interesting - he also griped a few years back about missing the dot.com boom. Just goes to show that even great traders don't catch everything. Also, if your worst mistake is a missed opportunity rather than a giant loss, that's pretty good going.
No that will not work. Imagine this situation: Trader A is consistently making 30% annualized returns on with his own initial capital. He does this through hardwork, generating actual alpha, and being a good trader. Trader B cant trade for shit, but he was born into a rich family which makes it easy for him to find investors. He starts a fund and has $1billion under management and all he does is borrow money from japan and buys bonds. He makes his money from fees. Trader B will be making more money then Trader A simply because he knows more people, not because he is a better trader. So judging a trader by how much money he has does not work.
I haven't read all 13 pages of this thread, but I think the identify of the best trader of all-time is fairly obvious: Mr Market. http://www.mrmarketishuge.com/ Bring him your finest meats and cheeses.
The best traders of all time.... Are the individual entrepreneurial traders whereby using direct access technology....independent from all others using only their own money other than those that have enabled the trading account....utilizing their own self made logic ....makes money consistently on a weekly basis....whereby the take from the market surpasses the top .5% percentile in income in the highest earning country on a annual basis....year after year.... Far more consistent than the IBs and others that have far more advantages such as unlimited banks,other peoples influence and money, insider information, etc.... The new breed ....and the envy of the world....because of their freedom and independence from world's rat races and biases.... The world becomes THEIR oyster....living wherever it suits them....
The Ticker and Investment Digest (Ticker and Investment Digest, Volume 5, Number 2, December, 1909, page 54.) William D. Gann An Operator Whose Science and Ability Place Him in the Front Rank His Remarkable Predictions and Trading Records By Richard D. Wyckoff:
Whoever has turned a small amount of money to extremely large amount...say if some one has turned $100 into billion. Jesse livermore, Rakesh JhunJhunwalla. Look at my previous link for Rakesh Jhunjhunwalla of google him and read about him on wikipedia. This guy turned $100 into 1.1 billion USD. isn't this an accomplishment? And here is my list 1) Jesse Livermore 2) Rakesh JhunJhunwalla 3) Richard Wyckoff 4) Bruce Kovner 6) Flipper AKA Paul Rotter 5) thers is some european guy 33 years old making $30 Million on ICE trading power. who knows his name? 6) John Arnhold (is he trading on inside information???) 7) Tim Knight 8) Red_Ink 9) Lescor 10) Anekdoten 11) SusanaDT 12) bespoke 13) Robert Weinstein 14) And of course ME ME ME ME. if u count "couldhave, wouldhave, shouldhave" I plan to live like Jesse Livermore..dating beautiful actresses...that is once i make it big. I think, in order to rank, we need to come with objectiveness. This is very subjective.