Greatest Investors & Traders

Celebrating Legendary Investors and Traders

Introduction

Trading and investment are fundamental parts of the world of finance, and a good number of individuals have advanced these two activities. This report names and shames 50 of the foremost traders and investors who have made great contributions to their fields. For each individual on the list, a brief biography is provided, along with a description of their work style and the reason they might be called great, or at least notable, in their field.

1. Warren Buffett

Biography: Born in 1930, Warren Buffett became the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Famous as the "Oracle of Omaha," he ranks among the richest people on the planet.

Investing Style: Value investing, targeting companies that are undervalued and possess strong fundamental characteristics.

Works: Books: "The Intelligent Investor" (foreword), "Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders."

2. George Soros

Bio: Investor and philanthropist born in 1930, George Soros is a Hungarian American. He is famous for his part in the Black Wednesday UK currency disaster in 1992.

Investment Approach: Worldwide trend-focused investing that zeros in on economic shifts and attempts to exploit them through an in-depth understanding of the sectors and false positioning of securities across markets.

Books: "The Alchemy of Finance," "Soros on Soros. "

3. Peter Lynch

Biography: Born in 1944, Lynch headed the Magellan Fund at Fidelity Investments from 1977 to 1990, attaining an average annual return of 29.2%.

Investing Style: Concentrate on companies exhibiting rapid growth; do not insist on a reasonable price.

Titles of two books written by Peter Lynch:

"One Up On Wall Street,"

"Beating the Street."

4. Benjamin Graham

Biography: Warren Buffett's mentor was Benjamin Graham, known as the "father of value investing." Graham was born in 1894.

Investment Style: Value investment with a heavy emphasis on fundamental analysis.

Literature: "The Intelligent Investor," "Security Analysis."

5. John Paulson

Born in 1955, Paulson is known for making billions by betting against subprime mortgages during the 2008 financial crisis.

Investment Style: Event-driven investment, concentrating on mergers and acquisitions.

"The Greatest Trade Ever" is a book.

6. Ray Dalio

Biography: Bridgewater Associates was founded by Dalio. He was born in 1949. Investing is something he is known for—specifically, his investing with a principles-based approach.

Investment Approach: Macro investing, using economic principles as the drivers of investment decisions.

Titles:

"Principles: Life and Work"

"Principles for Navigating Big Debt Crises"

7. Jesse Livermore

Bio: One of the most revered traders of the early 20th century, Jesse Livermore was born in 1877 and is best known for his market timing strategies. Livermore is my personal favorite.

Investment Approach: Engaging in speculative trading, with an emphasis on both the shifts in price and the "how" and "why" of market psychology.

Literature: "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator."

8. Jim Simons

Biography: Simons, a born mathematician, founded Renaissance Technologies. He is known for creating incomparable trading strategies, based on the principles of mathematics and the theories of probability.

Style of Investing: Trading via mathematical models and algorithms.

Authored no major works but appears in myriad finance texts.

9. Philip Fisher

Born in 1907, Fisher pioneered growth investing and influenced many investors, particularly Warren Buffett.

Style of Investment: Investing in growth, with concentration on long-term prospects and the quality of management.

Common stocks and unparalleled gains.

10. Carl Icahn

Biography: Icahn, born in 1936, is an activist investor recognized for acquiring considerable shares in firms to affect how they are directed.

Investment Style: Activist investing, concentrating on companies that are undervalued and demanding change.

Icahn: The Restless Billionaire. Books.

11. David Einhorn

Biography: Einhorn was born in 1968 and is the founder of Greenlight Capital. He is recognized for his investment approach that is oriented toward finding value.

Style of Investment: Value investment with concentration in short selling.

Books: "Fooling Some of the People All of the Time."

12. John Templeton

Biography: Born in 1912, Templeton was a forerunner in international investing and established the Templeton Growth Fund.

Style of Investment: Contrarian investing is the name of the game, with a prime focus on undervalued assets worldwide.

Tome: The Templeton Plan, Worldwide Wisdom.

13. Charles Munger

Biography: Born in 1924, Munger serves as vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and has been a partner of Warren Buffett for many decades.

Value investing, emphasizing mental models and multidisciplinary thinking.

Literature: "Poor Charlie's Almanack."

14. Howard Marks

Born in 1946, Marks is the co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management and is known for his insight on market cycles.

Style of Investing: Invest in publicly traded companies whose stock prices are undervalued compared with their intrinsic values. Pay careful attention to risk assessment; understand why a stock is cheap. When it comes to investing, understand and respect market psychology.

"The Most Important Thing" is a book by Howard Marks. In it, the author shares a handful of lessons he's learned through his life as an investor and in his past as a student.

Marks leads off with an essay highlighting his basic philosophy about investing. This essay is the most concise and, in some ways, the most important part of the book. Here's a look at what he covers in it.

First, Marks emphasizes the need for good, old-fashioned, deep thinking. What he means by this is that you should not only understand what is going on with the investments themselves but also understand the whole environment in which those investments are made.

15. Bill Ackman

Biography: Born in 1966, Ackman founded Pershing Square Capital Management and is recognized for an activist investing style.

Style of investing: Activist investing, which focuses on creating value in the long term.

Literature: Lacking primary texts of significant heft, my work appears throughout various venues in the finance literature.

16. T. Boone Pickens

Born in 1928, Pickens became a legendary oilman and investor. He was known for his corporate raiding strategies.

Activist investing in the energy sector is the investing style of this individual.

"The First Billion is the Hardest" by Christopher Stein is a book that gives the reader an invaluable look into the vast wealth of the life sciences. He explains that, although it might seem like a whole bunch of nothing, in reality, this space is a tremendous treasure trove. It is filled with ideas, and every single day, more ideas are born here in the pale blue dot we all inhabit.

17. Mohnish Pabrai

Born in 1964, Pabrai is an investor and founder of Pabrai Investment Funds, renowned for their value investing approach.

Investment Style: Value investment with an emphasis on low-cost, high-quality businesses.

The Dhandho Investor: A somewhat winding read, yet also an essential one. Regarding value investing, any mention of Graham and Dodd is, of course, a must, and they certainly aren't ignored here. But channels of thought are also followed that propped up their cathedrals of value investing. You get a sense of the history big ideas have, and not just when they're coming up big. Meyer does big in the prologue and outro.

18. Whitney Tilson

Biography: Born in 1966, Tilson is an investment professional and the founder of Kase Capital Management. He has become well-known for his value investing insights and has a reputation in certain circles as a consummate value investor.

Investment Style: Growth investing with an emphasis on value. Emphasis on investments in companies with strong potential for long-term growth; typically takes years for the full value of the investment to be realized.

More Mortgage Meltdown: How Greed and Easy Credit Have Destroyed the American Dream. Adam Lashinsky. St. Martin's Press. 306 pages.

19. John Bogle

Biography: Founded in 1929, Bogle Group Vanguard and Index: was a pioneer of investing, in American finance, and Bogle was the revolutionary founder of the American company Vanguard Group and the financial titan who changed the game's rules for everyone.

Investment Approach: A mostly passive strategy that emphasizes low-cost index fund investing.

The Little Book of Common-Sense Investing.

20. Burton Malkiel

Bio: Born in 1932, Malkiel is an economist and author known for his work on the efficient market theory.

Style of Investing: Advocacy for index funds, and a way of investing that is closer to passive than active.

Books: "A Totally Random Stroll Along Wall Street."

21. Robert Kiyosaki

Biography: Kiyosaki was born in 1947 and is an entrepreneur and author who gained renown through his books teaching financial literacy.

Investment Approach: Financial literacy and investing in real estate.

"Poor Dad" is my biological father. He works all his life for money yet is not financially literate. Until his death, he is a poor man. "Rich Dad" is my best friend's father. He becomes my mentor in business and investing and teaches me that I don't have to work for money; I can have my money working for me.

22. Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Shortened Version: Born in 1960, and known for his work on risk and uncertainty, Taleb is a trading philosopher.

Trading style: Investing in options and zeroing in on black swan events.

Literature: "The Black Swan", "Antifragile".

23. Daniel Kahneman

Biography: Born in 1934, Kahneman is a psychologist and Nobel Prize winner recognized for his investigations in the area of behavioral finance.

Investment Style: Concentrate on the effects of behavioral biases on investor decisions.

"Thinking, Fast and Slow" is a book.

24. Michael Steinhardt

Born in 1940, Steinhardt is a hedge fund manager who has invested with strategy in macroeconomics. He is known for not only having done well in that field but for also doing so with a rare combination of risk-taking and common sense that has led him to span a remarkably diverse range of investments across a very long time horizon.

Investing Style: Invest globally with a macro approach and a concentration on timing the markets.

Books: "No Bull: My Life in and Out of Markets."

25. Stanley Druckenmiller

Biography: Founder of Duquesne Capital, Stanley Druckenmiller, born in 1953, is a former chairman and president. He stands out in the realm of investing as a prominent macro investor.

Investing Approach: Global macro investing with a focus on economic trends.

Books: No significant works authored, but present in a range of financial literature.

26. Jeff Bezos

Born in 1964, the founder of Amazon, Bezos, is famed for his innovative business and investing approach.

Investment Methodology: Growth investing over the long term, with a concentration on disruptive technologies.

Major publications: No substantial books written but has been included in numerous business literature.

27. Larry Fink

Biography: Born in 1952, Laurence D. Fink became the CEO of BlackRock in 1988 and has led it to become the world's largest asset manager.

Style of Investing: Strategies of long-term investment, with a concentration on sustainability.

Authored no significant books but appeared in different finance literary works.

28. Mohamed El-Erian

Biography:

Born in 1958, El-Erian has made a name for himself in the world of economics. He is not only a respected economist but also a former CEO of PIMCO, one of the largest investment companies in the world. He has insights that few others possess when it comes to understanding the dynamics of global markets.

Investment Style: Investing on a large scale but always looking at the small details. Investing with a focus on the trends of the overall economy.

Books: "When Markets Collide."

29. Jeremy Siegel

Bio: Born in 1945, Siegel is a finance professor at Wharton and a well-known author in the area of stock market returns.

Style of investing: Long-term equity investing.

Books: "Stocks for the Long Run."

30. David Tepper

Biography: Founded in 1957, Appaloosa Management is managed by Tepper and is known for its investing in distressed debt.

Distressed Investing and Opportunistic Investing: Investment styles employed by the Dune Capital Management that capitalize on investments in companies undergoing financial difficulties (distressed investing) or look for opportunities to invest in companies or assets that are undervalued due to temporary situations (opportunistic investing).

No significant books have been written, but several pieces of various finance literature showcase him.

31. Leon Cooperman

Biography: Born in 1933, Cooperman established Omega Advisors and is recognized as a leading value investor.

Devise an investment strategy that emphasizes styles, such as value investing, with a concentration on fundamental financial analysis.

No significant books written but included in a variety of financial literature.

32. Charles Schwab

Born in 1937, Schwab founded the Charles Schwab Corporation and pioneered discount brokerage.

Investment Style: Invest for the long term in low-cost strategies.

Books: "Investing for Dummies."

33. Peter Thiel

Born in 1967, Thiel is a venture capitalist and the cofounder of PayPal, noted for his contrarian views.

Investing Style: Disruptive technology-focused venture capital investing.

Literature: "From Nothing to Something".

34. Jim Cramer

Born in 1955, Cramer is a hedge fund managing former television personality and investment advisor.

Type of Investment: Trading of a short-term nature with an emphasis on the use of price momentum as the principal factor in determining buy and sell decisions.

Literature: "Actual Currency."

35. Richard Dennis

Biography: Dennis was born in 1949 and is a commodities trader recognized for his successful Turtle Trading experiment.

Investment Approach: Following trends and trading systematically.

Books: No significant books written by the author but has been included in several finance-related literary works.

36. John "Jack" Bogle

Biography: Born in 1929, Bogle founded Vanguard Group and pioneered the practice of index investing.

Investment Approach: Low-cost index funds used in a passive investment strategy.

"The Common-Sense Investing Little Book."

37. John Neff

Born in 1931, Neff was a value investor who had the distinction of managing the Vanguard Windsor Fund.

Style of Investment: Invest in value, with an emphasis on low ratios of P/E.

Books: "Investing as John Neff Does."

38. Thomas Rowe Price Jr.

Bio: Born in 1898, Price was a trailblazer in growth investing and established T. Rowe Price Associates.

Style of Investing: Investment in growth stocks, concentrating on the long-term payoffs.

Books: Not a major author of books, but various finance literature features him.

39. William O'Neil

Biography: O'Neil, a stock trader who established the Investor's Business Daily, was born in 1933.

CAN SLIM is an investment strategy that concentrates on growth stocks. Its superlative performance has this well-deserved reputation. Many market-timers and strategists can only dream of achieving such a hefty reward.

Books: "Ways to Get Rich Writing Titles for Books."

40. John C. Bogle

Biography: Bogle was born in 1929 and is the founder of Vanguard Group. He is a mutual fund visionary and has contributed greatly to investing for the masses.

Investment Approach: Investing in index funds and promoting low-cost investment vehicles.

Books: "The Little Book of Common-Sense Investing."

41. John Hussman

Biography: An economist and fund manager born in 1961, Hussman is renowned for his market predictions.

Value investing with a focus on where we are in the market cycle is how I would describe my particular style of investing. I also favor investing in sectors that are out of favor and shun those that are popular. Warren Buffett is a value investor, and he has said that you don't have to be a genius to be a value investor. He is right about that. It is an investment style that has worked over decades for many people. Here is how I do it. I'm a sector investor.

Authored no significant books but has a presence in much finance literature.

42. David Dreman

Born in 1936, Dreman is known for his contrarian investment strategies and for being an investor. Bio:

Style of Investment: Investing in a contrarian manner, with attention to behavioral finance.

Investment strategies that are contrary to the crowd.

43. Bill Miller

Biography: Miller, born in 1980, is an investment expert recognized for his decades-long investment style. Miller's investment style, which is considered "very patient," spans over 30 years.

The style of investing: Investing in a way that emphasizes value but invests with a focus on long-term growth.

Authored no significant books; featured in several finance-related texts.

44. John Mauldin

Bio: Born in 1950, Mauldin is an economist and author famous for his insights into the markets.

Investment Approach: Macroeconomic trend investing.

Literature: "Endgame: The End of the Debt Supercycle and How It Changes Everything."

45. Howard Marks

Bio: Born in 1946, Marks is the co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management and is recognized for his market insights.

Investment Approach: Invest with a value style, focusing primarily on risk assessment.

Books: "The Most Important Thing."

46. Richard Branson

Biography: An entrepreneur and the founder of the Virgin Group, Branson was born in 1950.

Investment Style: Entrepreneurial investing and venture capital.

Losing My Virginity: The Autobiography Richard Branson.

Possibly the most entertaining autobiography ever written.

-The Guardian.

47. Jim Rogers

Biography: Rogers, an investor and co-founder of the Quantum Fund, was born in 1942.

Style of Investing: Worldwide top-down investment with attention to commodities.

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Literature: "Investment Cyclist," "Warm Commodities."

48. Marc Andreessen

Bio: Born in 1971, Andreessen is a venture capitalist and a co-founder of Netscape.

Style of Investing: Investing in technology startups through venture capital.

Authored no major works but included in several business-oriented publications.

49. Ben Horowitz

Biography: Born in 1966, Horowitz serves as a venture capitalist and is a co-founder of the firm Andreessen Horowitz.

Investment Approach: Technology startup venture capital.

"The Hard Thing About Hard Things."

50. Gary Vaynerchuk

Born in 1975, Gary Vaynerchuk is an entrepreneur and an investor best known for his work in the field of digital marketing.

Style of Investing: Investing with an entrepreneurial approach, concentrating on social media and branding.

Volumes:

"Take Action,"

"Do it Now!"

Conclusion

Investing and trading in today’s financial markets is not only the purview of a well-heeled, private-world elite; it is also a landscape where most of us can find a way in. These 50 individuals stand out among the many who traverse-storied paths of hard knocks and deep intellectual dives through the nonsensical world of semiconductors, for example, or the nonsensical world of natural resource stocks.

This page inspired me to learn more about investing and the wisdom of great traders. Highly recommend!

John Williams

The quotes section is a treasure trove of insights from legendary investors. Truly motivating and educational!

Jane Anderson

★★★★★

★★★★★