As of January 2026, Warren Buffett is considered the wealthiest investor and trader in the United States, with an estimated net worth of approximately $148.9 billion. Known as the "Oracle of Omaha" and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, he amassed his fortune through long-term value investing.
Stock traders are also called speculators of the market as they tend to enter and exit in a short span. Traders can be individuals working on their own or professionals working for a financial company. The greatest three traders in the history of trading are George Soros, Michel Burry, and David Tepper.
A 2019 study by Harvard Business Review found either Vanguard, BlackRock or State Street is the largest listed owner of 88% of S&P 500 companies. There is a perception that a few select companies own a vast majority of the stock market.
The World's Wealthiest Traders
The "24-year-old trader making $8 million" refers primarily to Jack Kellogg, a successful day trader who reported over $8 million in gains from trading in 2020 and 2021, starting with just $7,500 and leveraging key indicators like VWAP, support/resistance, volume, and linear regression for simple, adaptable strategies. His story highlights achieving significant returns by weathering different market conditions, learning from losses, and sticking to core principles rather than overcomplicating things.
Takashi Kotegawa, also known as BNF, is a legendary Japanese day trader who famously turned an initial capital of around $13,600 into an astounding $153 million in approximately eight years.
Benjamin Graham: The Father of Value Investing.
Jesse Livermore. Jesse Lauriston Livermore (July 26, 1877 – November 28, 1940) was an American stock trader. He is considered a pioneer of day trading and was the basis for the main character of Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, a best-selling book by Edwin Lefèvre.
He seems to have shifted his focus on the slower real estate market (a rumor is due to spend more times with his wife and families).
Stocks were valued at just 12 percent of what they had been worth in September 1929. Altogether, between September 1929 and June 1932, the nation's stock exchanges lost $179 billion in value. The great stock market crash of October 1929 brought the economic prosperity of the 1920s to a symbolic end.
Many people have made millions just by day trading. Some examples are Ross Cameron, Brett N. Steenbarger, etc. But the important thing about day trading is that only a few can make money out of day trading and the rest end up losing their entire capital in day trading.
The 84% Rule in trading is a concept where traders re-enter a trade at the same key level with identical parameters (stop-loss, target) after an initial stop-out, expecting an ~84% success rate for the second attempt, especially after a fake-out or liquidity grab, leveraging the idea that the market often respects the original level despite the initial false move. It's a trade management technique to recover losses or capitalize on high-probability setups when price returns to the original thesis, often involving identifying market imbalances like Fair Value Gaps (FVGs) for confirmation.
Some of the most frequent reasons for traders' failure to reach profitability are emotional decisions, poor risk management strategies, and lack of education.
The "90-90-90 rule" in trading is a harsh reality check stating that 90% of new traders lose 90% of their money within the first 90 days, highlighting the high failure rate due to emotional decisions, poor risk management, and lack of education/strategy. It serves as a cautionary tale, emphasizing that success requires discipline, a solid trading plan, continuous learning, and strict risk control (like risking only 1-2% per trade) to avoid the common pitfalls that wipe out most beginners.
Amazon has long been a dominant force
It has certainly made far more millionaires than Sirius XM. The top tech stock has soared 10,240% in the past two decades. All you had to do was invest $10,000 in early January 2006, and you'd have $1 million in your brokerage account right now.
While pinpointing the absolute "longest" is tough, Peter Tuchman is widely recognized as the longest-standing active trader on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) floor, working there since 1985, weathering major crises, and becoming a symbol of old-school, chaotic trading amidst modern tech. For historical records, Louis Schwabe was noted as the oldest member of the Manchester Royal Exchange in 1922, receiving a free pass after 60 years, suggesting incredible longevity in that specific market, though records are less detailed.