Those who think that markets can’t be iconic are clearly not traders. There are trades so iconic and so talked-about that almost a century later we are still talking about them as well as trying to replicate the success of all of the participants.
Here are ten most iconic trades in history.
1. Jesse Livermore.
2. Paul Tudor Jones.
3. Andy Krieger.
4. Jim Rogers.
5. George Soros.
1. Jesse Livermore.
Jesse Livermore shorted the market crash of 1929 and earned $100 million. That is what he is famous for. Livermore was one of the first most famous traders in the United States and he managed to write his name down in the history and economy books. He first shorted before a huge San Francisco earthquake, and while he couldn’t predict an earthquake happening, that trade brought him $250 thousand. After that he was known for successful shorting.
Imagine what $100 million could do for you in 1929! That was a huge amount of money. He might have as well won the moon itself! Jesse predicted a market crash and shorted the whole market. Pretty smart.
2. Paul Tudor Jones.
Paul Tudor Jones is also famous for making $100 million off of shorting an entire market. But he did it much later than his predecessor. He predicted and shorted the market in 1987 and won $100 million on so-called black Monday. It was the day when Dow Jones lost 22 percent which brought this enormous win to Jones.
After the win PBS issued a documentary about Jones’ success. All of the copies were bought out by Jones himself. It is said that he didn’t like his secretes revealed to the public. Or he just didn’t like watching himself trading.
3. Andy Krieger.
Andy Krieger managed to make as much as $300 million on short trades. Talk about being a pro! What was the deal? Well, after the infamous Black Monday hit the market traders started to flee in horror. They were desperate to look for safe havens. And Krieger saw that this hysteria was overvaluing New Zealand dollar. That meant that sooner or later it was going to fall.
Eventually then 32-year-old Krieger started to short Kiwi positions worth millions of dollars. He traded so much that his sell orders actually became bigger than the money supply of New Zealand.
His effort brought his company $300 million. Krieger himself got $3 million commission out of it.
4. Jim Rogers.
The first one on our list to long assets. Jim roger saw the opportunity back in the 90s when commodities were cheap and potential for growth was undervalued. What did Rogers do? Well, he practically smelled bulls and created Rogers International Commodity Index.
After 1998 Index returned no less than 209 percent of the revenue annually.
But what is really impressive in this story is the fact that Rogers was able to not only predict the bulls coming, but also when the rally they brought was going to end. After all the rally was ongoing for more than a decade! That is a tough one to catch.
5. George Soros.
One of the biggest names in the field. This list couldn’t do without this icon and his successful $1 billion-trade!
When pound was traded on a fixed exchange rate Soros preferred to short it even if that meant that he had to borrow money to do so. Shorting soon payed off as British government decided that fixed rate is going to cost them billions of pounds. After that Great Britain withdrew from European Exchange Rate Mechanism and pound fell.
Shorting pound at that time brought Soros the trader-billionaire status.
