5 Traders Worth Studying

I found this pretty interesting. Anyone have any thoughts on these guys?

"Example is the best precept" Aesop, Ancient Greek and Author


http://detachedtrader.com/uploaded_i...er2-790495.JPG#1

Bruce Kovner, Hedge Fund Manager at Caxton Corporation
Estimated Net Worth: $2 Yards Plus
Primary Market: Currencies/FX
Summary: Harvard educated, former Taxi driver, used credit from mastercard to start trading
Personality Mention: Ultra secretive, mother committed suicide,Very creative and imaginative, politically conservative, Pro-Iraq war, from California
Best resource on Kovner: Market Wizards, pg.51; George Soros's Right-Wing Twin (New York Metro)


http://detachedtrader.com/uploaded_i...ger-743738.jpg#2

Dan Zanger, Independent Trader, runs Chartpattern website
Estimated Net Worth: $20 Million
Primary market: Naz stocks
Summary: High school graduate, Former ski bum and swimming pool repairman, got addicted to markets from "Charting the Market" television show, took leveraged account up 29,233% in one year during tech bubble
Personality Mention: Little life outside of trading, trading extremist, trades from 88-foot yacht with international satellite reach, Raised in California, likes wines and art
Best resource on Zanger: ChartPattern.com


http://detachedtrader.com/uploaded_i...fin-729397.jpg#3

Kenneth C. Griffin, Hedge Fund Manager of Citadel Investment Group
Estimated Net Worth: $2 Yards Plus
Primary Market: Bond Arbitrage
Summary: Started trading stock options as freshman from Harvard dorm room, bond arb as sophomore, , was running millionion in college, Citadel big on quantitative trading methods, $12 yards plus under management
Personality Mention: held second wedding in Garden of Versailles, taste for expensive Art, Doesn't allow anyone to talk to his former traders, tough guy to work for, Plays PS2 video games, wife runs separate hedge fund-Aragon Global, plays in soccer leagues, brainy
Best resource on Griffin: Bloomberg Piece on Griffin

4

George Soros, Hedge Fund Manager (now passive) of Quantum Fund
Estimated New Worth: $11 Yards Plus
Primary Market: Currencies/FX
Summary: Holocaust survivor, studied at London School of Economics, traded with Jim Rogers #5 before big fallout, Soros and network of associates gunned down (slapped cable/sterling for yards (billions) in profits in a week. Soros offshore entity alone slapped a $10 yard cable short on. Laughed when Bank of England said they would defend cable by borrowing $15 yards.
Personality Mention: Insecure, divorced two times, emotionally detached, very ballsy-will go for the jugular if he sees something, morally and politically liberal, athiest, extremely dedicated to non-profit Open Society Institute, likes chess, checkers, and tennis.
Best resource on Soros: Soros: The Life and Times of A Messianic Billionaire by Michael T. Kaufman

5

Jim Rogers, Independent Investor, Author of Hot Commodities
Estimated Net Worth: $150 Million
Primary Market: Commodities
Summary: From Alabama, Educated at Yale and Oxford, founded Quantum Fund with Soros before 'the split' where rumors were thrown around. Fired from Morgan Stanley after the Soros split. Trades Anything and Everything with Macro outlook. World Traveler. Author of Hot Commodities , Adventure Capitalist,and Investment Biker
Personality Mention: twice divorced/ currently married, misanthrope,emotionally detached, blunt, hard to work with, very contrarian, questions everything, Very original, well studied independent thinker, very frugal, rode motorcycle around the world and later drove modified Mercedes around world for Guinness World Records.
Best resource: Market Wizards pg.283, Jim Rogers personal website

Gotta Love this quote from the Kovnar article

“He would have been supremely well qualified to be an active member of that [academic] world had circumstances moved him in that direction. And what distinguishes him from most intellectuals is that he is also brilliant.”

Heh Heh

This is good stuff! Thanx
HJ

great post!

my favorite you listed is Bruce Kovner. when i picture that guy trading, i see a distinguished knight slaying a three headed dragon. the guy is made of metal...when i read his MW interview i couldnt believe what i was ready. truely amazing man.

Everyone,

If you knew half of what I know about some of these guys .....

They all play the game at a much different level than you can imagine. Most of what they do isn't applicable to retail forex.

i vote adding vegas into the list up there

Explain this "level" your talking about. Besides having more capital and more information flow, what is this "unknown" your talking about? If you go into the mindset of the heavy hitters, you are getting insight into the players that not only move the markets but are overwhlemingly successful. So studying these players would be applicable to retail traders. A retail trader could only benefit from studying these players.

What about Bill Lipschutz?

Seems quite an amazing guy from what I have read. Totally obsessed by trading thats for sure. I like his style, and as the new guy on the block I certainly look up to that guy as a trading role model!

Besides what you have mentioned above, what these guys have are, very high intelligence, very high confidence, ability to think outside of the box, and the courage to take calculated risks.

Thats a given. These qualities are known. I was asking what Vegas was talking about with his "different level" that is not applicable to retail fx.

Well, one thing I can think of off the top of my head is that Soros BROKE THE BANK OF ENGLAND. I don't know about you, but I can't break a central bank over my knee. He realized that the Bank of England's monetary policy made it vulnerable to attack IF somebody had the resources. He put together a group that did. They sold billions of pounds in order to achieve their objective.

I am interested in how Bruce Knover play the FX market. Any difference from your style ? Are they the market mover ? Please elaborate. Thx..

Yeah, I was thinking our own Vegas and Franz Shoar must at least be candidates for such a list....

Zanger is interesting to me. He made (and then almost lost) his fortune in the 90s stock bull market/early 2000s bear market. His money management was way too aggressive early on. He went from $11,000 to $18 million in under 2 years...then lost a good chunk. Apparently he has stabilized into a more consistent trader these days.

While he hasn't made nearly as much as the others, he made his stake entirely as a private trader. (He now has a newsletter/subsciption website, but that didn't come along until he was already famous.) I'm pretty sure most of the others made the bulk of their fortune as money managers. While there's nothing wrong with managing funds, it's very unlikely that the average trader will ever have a chance to do that. But someone like Zanger shows us that it is possible to make it on your own...

vegas how do you know a lot about these guys?

read market wizards!

what i liked reading about dan zanger is that he started off as an average joe and a ski bum but now trades from an 88 foot yaught. reminds me of Sir Larry trading off his boat in the movie "Wall Street"

I read before but those are for public comsumption. Well, the inside out, we shall let Vegas reveals it.

compro, the questions you asked are answered in market wizards books.

even so, i too am curious to hear vegas' real life experiences with these traders...

Kovner has some very high level government education, he was getting his PhD from Harvard before he left. He's supposed to be extremely brilliant. He trades very long term from fundamentals. The chances that you'll be able to trade like Kovner are almost nil, so don't try. You need massive resources and a knowledge base that you just don't have.

That's what Vegas is talking about. These guys trade at an entirely different level because of the resources at their disposal. They can do things like break central banks, swing markets, and do huge amounts of fundamental research. Also, at that stage you can't just execute a trade and jump into a position, they have to do their entries and exits differently.

E.g., Kovner bought a few oil tankers to discover how oil moves through shipping routes. Who can do that type of stuff? Not you or I, but a billionaire hedge fund manager can.

I agree with FxLogic's #12 post. A guy like Zanger is most impressive in that
he is an independent trader trading most likely his own money or his & a few close friends. He did what he did without all the support staff that the others have @ their disposal. What he has accomplished anyone of us can do the same if we apply ourselves. Hats off to the man I say.

Hi Vegas,

If you are reading this thread, please clarify what u said above. I am very curious.. You have been trading since the late 70s, u must know alot of those top traders.. Tudor Jones, Mark Fisher etc. What is their game plan like ?