5 Most Successful Short Sellers of All Time

4. John Paulson

John Paulson ranks 4th on the list of the most successful short sellers of all time. Paulson is an American hedge fund manager who became a billionaire through his financial foresight. He leads a New York-based investment management firm founded in 1994, Paulson & Co., and is known to be someone who made an enormous fortune in Wall Street history. In 2007, Paulson earned around $4 billion after shorting the US housing market. He foresaw the subprime mortgage crisis and used credit default swaps to bet against mortgage-backed securities. Three years later, he earned another $4.9 billion by investing in the gold sector.

PAULSON & CO

John Paulson of Paulson & Co