Who Is A Stock Market Icon? More than half of all Americans report that they own stocks through retirement accounts, brokerage accounts, and other investment plans. Most of these shareholders generate modest returns – enough to keep up with inflation and maybe a bit more when the market is growing.
Some realize massive losses after making high-stakes bets on risky stocks, and some get lucky. They come out on the winning side of those high-stakes bets, creating a small fortune from practically nothing.
A very small number of investors have more than luck on their side. They have a special genius for identifying the right stocks at the right time, then making their moves before the rest of the market catches on. These highly-skilled queens and kings of the stock market create massive fortunes through carefully considered strategies, discipline, and the sort of unique insight that is rarely found in the financial world.
These are the modern stock market icons – the men and women who have proven again and again that they understand how to be consistently successful in a venture that is best-known for its unpredictability.
Warren Buffett – Net Worth $114 Billion
Warren Buffett bought his first stock when he was 11 years old, and the lessons he learned from that experience lasted a lifetime. Now in his 90s, Buffett has spent decades studying the market and leading his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, to unprecedented success.
Since Buffett took control of the company, Berkshire Hathaway has returned an average of approximately 18 percent each year as compared to the S&P’s annual 10 percent average return.
Buffett is one of the most famous value investors of all time, and he is known for his uncanny ability to spot companies with the potential to generate long-term profit while their stock is still trading at value prices.
What Is Warren Buffett’s Motto?
Rule No. 1 is never lose money. Rule No. 2 is never forget Rule No. 1.
Cathie Wood – Net Worth $250 Million
Cathie Wood might not be on the Forbes Billionaire List yet, but she has certainly made her mark as a stock market icon. After founding the firm ARK Invest in 2014, she developed a family of niche funds that focus on disruptive innovation.
Wood’s team examines emerging technologies and determines whether and how they will change the world. Then, she chooses the most promising opportunities and predicts which sectors, industries, and companies are likely to become leaders in tomorrow’s economy. That’s where ARK Invest funds put their money. Examples include 3D printing, robotics, and virtual healthcare.
Today, ARK Invest has billions in assets under management, and financial analysts are carefully watching for Wood’s next move.
What Is Cathie Wood’s Motto?
Invest with conviction.
George Soros – Net Worth $8 Billion
At the height of his career as a hedge fund manager, George Soros’ fortune was several times what it is today. However, he has donated billions to charitable organizations in an effort to encourage advances in education, justice, public health, and independent media.
Soros’ track record as an investor isn’t like the others on this list. His biggest profits weren’t because he chose winning companies and industries. His profits came when he was one of the first to recognize weakness.
For example, Soros has been referred to as “the man who broke the Bank of England” after realizing a $1 billion return from the short sale of British currency in 1992. That move cost the United Kingdom’s Treasury £3.4 billion.
Soros can be a divisive figure, but that doesn’t take away from his astonishing skill at optimizing returns on his investments. That makes him a modern stock market icon.
What Is George Soros’ Motto?
Markets are constantly in a state of uncertainty and flux and money is made by discounting the obvious and betting on the unexpected.
Jim Simons – Net Worth $24 Billion
If the question is who is the smartest billionaire, the answer is Jim Simons. Before he became a stock market icon, he was entirely devoted to the study of mathematics.
Simons graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and quickly rose to the top of his field. His work earned him induction into the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and he contributed to the development of some of the most compelling mathematical theories of all time.
Simons was 40 when he started exploring finance, and he soon realized that mathematics held the key to a fortune. Using quantitative analysis to choose his trades proved highly successful, and Simons’ hedge fund, Renaissance Technologies, beat the market year after year.
What Is Jim Simons’ Motto?
Luck plays a meaningful role in everyone’s lives.
Abigail Johnson – Net Worth $23 Billion
Abigail Johnson might not be a stock market icon in the traditional sense, but her impact on investing is indisputable. Johnson leads the massive investment firm Fidelity which has more than $4 trillion in assets under management (AUM).
Johnson values her privacy, so little is known about her behind-the-scenes strategies and methods. However, when Fidelity makes a move under her guidance, the entire financial world pays attention. For example, when Fidelity announced it would launch a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), cryptocurrency skeptics finally – for the most part – fell silent.
What Is Abigail Johnson’s Motto?
Always challenge the status quo and embrace change as an opportunity for improvement.
John Paulson – Net Worth $4 Billion
Hedge-fund manager John Paulson always knew he belonged on Wall Street, and as soon as he had the right experience, he launched a hedge fund. It was reasonably successful, but Paulson was just one of many until the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis.
The same subprime mortgage crisis that contributed to a global financial disaster proved exceptionally profitable for Paulson. Through strategic investments that assumed mortgage-backed securities would go south, he personally realized $4 billion – and gained an international reputation as a stock market icon.
What Is John Paulson’s Motto?
The most important thing in investing is to know what you’re investing in, and if you’re confident in the outcome, it’s important to stay true to your position.
Chamath Palihapitiya – Net Worth $1 Billion
Chamath Palihapitiya earned his position as a stock market icon through creativity and innovation. His early career included several years at Facebook when the social media company was just beginning to demonstrate its ability to transform communication and marketing on a global scale.
From there, Palihapitiya moved onto a different sort of innovation – a venture capital fund that specialized in technological advancement. Some of his fund’s investments included Slack and Yammer. More recently, he backed SoFi, a company that has already disrupted the financial services industry and appears poised to influence additional change in the coming months and years.
What Is Chamath Palihapitiya’s Motto?
We now need to spend time in hard things.
Who Is A Stock Market Icon?
The only characteristic that every stock market icon has in common is the desire and ability to think differently about investing. None follow the crowd or make investments because they get caught up in market enthusiasm.
Outside of their willingness to buck tradition and create new strategies for mastering the market, stock market icons don’t have many similarities. They are a diverse mix of personalities, skills, and experience that support their success in the world of finance.
#1 Stock For The Next 7 Days
When Financhill publishes its #1 stock, listen up. After all, the #1 stock is the cream of the crop, even when markets crash.
Financhill just revealed its top stock for investors right now... so there's no better time to claim your slice of the pie.
See The #1 Stock Now >>The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Financhill has a disclosure policy. This post may contain affiliate links or links from our sponsors.