How are portfolio managers not traders? How do you not consider George Soros a trader? He made his name by heavily shorting the pound and breaking the bank of England... how was that not a trade? How do you not consider Steve Cohen a trader? Anyone in the financial world, making decisions to buy and sell assets is a trader. Maybe they are not actually executing the trade, but they are the ones making most of the important decisions.
Hey Riskfreetrading, you sound pretty bitter, could that be because that option mentoring of yours failed ? ( I reported you by the way, everyone should pay taxes ) You see, if you can not make money, you can not teach others how to make money, nor you can manage other people money. Just because you suck at trading does not mean that others have to suck like you or can't make a lot of money.
You can easily daytrade a $300 million stake with low or zero leverage in fx markets. But there is no-one (yet) that made the Forbes list doing just that.
What a silly thread... Especially when the author has 3000 posts. Someone give this guy a copy of Market Wizards. Money is all relative... if you start with several thousand and turn that to several hundred thousand, it's similar to turning several million into a billion. At that level it is only sane to operate as a hedge fund so 100% of your capital is not at risk.
Bottom line, there isn't an individual "trader" on the list. No, fund managers don't count. And Buffet, has traded OPM from day one. The Kovner "bio" posted here earlier was erroneous as well. He was backed by Commodity Corp his second year in the biz. In itself that's no reason to be discouraged about trading. Kovner or Paul "Tudor" Jones were capable of making millions, even on their own. Just not billions. The way to the list is by owning something that trades at a multiple. If you're A-Rod you're a guy making 25mil but paying taxes and alimony up the ass and banking 8 a year. But if you've got a company making 25m and Mr. Market says I'll pay you 31x, for that hopefully growing stream, then bingo, you're on the Forbes list. But there's plenty of investors on there who got rich by making one 300% play after another. Which is trading.
High frequency trading is too exhausting after a decade. If your worth over 100 million, why bust your ass when you could make a seemingly "safe" investment and get a decent market return. No need to risk a significant portion of your capital to make 200% yearly returns, particularly as it gets harder with more size.
Many investors are essentially just longer-term swing traders. What do you call it when you re-adjust your portfolio every week?
Someone understands the root of being in the club! Bravo sit! I am almost sure that you make money in the market, because you understand the fundamentals of things. The multiple is the difference between the wealth of Jones owing a corner coffee shop and the guy who started starbucks.The latter guy started with selling coffees, but his ultimate goal was to sell a business that sells coffees, while the Jones continued to sell coffees forever with a lot of work and constant reward.
Joe Lewis and George Soros came to my mind. They made billions in fx market. http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/10/billionaires-2009-richest-people_Joseph-Lewis_IE5X.html http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/10/billionaires-2009-richest-people_George-Soros_L9II.html