• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Trading Heroes

Trading Heroes

Forex Trading Education

  • About
  • Articles
  • Products
  • Work With Me
  • Login

Paul Rotter – The Legend, The Myth, The Man

Paul Rotter has been called the greatest trader ever. Although he trades bonds and now currencies, successful trading is universal. At one point, it was the single largest trader on the Eurex Exchange. Find out how you can learn from his success.

Home / Trader Life / Paul Rotter – The Legend, The Myth, The Man

Last updated: August 11, 2022
By Hugh Kimura

I had never heard of Paul Rotter until I interviewed Rafael Veron (one of his trading heroes). But the more that I found out about him, the more interesting and inspirational it got. I don't know him, nor have I ever spoken to him, so this is just based on my online research.

However, I did my best to piece together his story and find credible resources that could shed some light on who he is and how he has been able to achieve such amazing returns. He trades bonds, not Forex. While I find bonds rather boring, his story is so incredible that I decided to write about it.

After all, trading is trading, right?

While I certainly don't promote trading like Paul, his story serves as an inspiration to what is possible in the trading world. I hope you find this information as interesting as I did.

The Legend

Some consider Paul Rotter one of the best traders in the world. If that is really true or not is anyone's guess. But there is certainly no doubt that he is one of the best.

He became known as “The Flipper” because of his unique trading style on the Eurex exchange that involved placing a huge order on the opposite side of the market that he really wanted to take. Then when other traders tried to jump in to take a ride with the big position, he would withdraw the order and take the opposite side of the trade to suck in all the bad trades and scalp a few ticks.

You could call it scalp trading.

RELATED: Positive affirmation tracks to reprogram your subconscious

By some accounts, he was trading as many as 180,000 contracts per day in 2005. That made him the largest trader of German debt futures on the Eurex. This “flipping” style was so successful that the exchange may have changed the tick size of their contracts in an attempt to level the playing field.

In 1998, he helped form a Dublin-based prop trading firm that started with $1.3 million. At the end of three months of trading, they were up to $6.5 million.

But this did not come without a scare. Given the size that Rotter was trading at the time, the firm could have gone under if they had one bad trading day. Luckily, things worked out and they were able to build their trading account.

The Myth

For about a year, nobody knew who he was, but other traders just knew that there was an Ireland-based trader out there that had a unique trading style and was making a lot of money trading German bond futures. Rotter was despised by many traders who blamed him for their losses.

Some say that he was making as much as $5 million per month. This cannot be confirmed, but it would make sense, given the size he was trading.

The Man

According to one of his interviews, he is a Czech native who moved to Germany when he was 9 years old. He started his trading career on the bond desk of a German bank and soon after almost going broke, began trading again with Daiwa Securities. Within three months at Daiwa, he was trading 5 lots well, with the help of some trading mentors at the firm.

He mentioned in an interview that is biggest strength in trading is the ability to trade bigger when he has the advantage and to scale back when he doesn't or isn't trading well. This is a trait that I have seen often in very successful traders.

To find out more about Rotter, you can check out this interview on Trader Daily, but I'm not sure how long that website will be around because since being purchased in 2010, nothing has been done with it. You can read the original article about Rotter from Trader Daily here (PDF).

You can also visit his website. In typical investment management website fashion, there isn't much there, but you can get a feel for his investment philosophy.

Or learn German.

Conclusion

I hope that this post has given you some insight into possibly the most successful trader of all time. Even though he is not a Forex trader, good trading is good trading and there is always an opportunity to learn from it. His story is a great example of a small guy who went on to become one of the biggest players in a market.

If his story interests you, then dig into it and find out if anything about his story can help you trade better. Again, I'm not promoting that you trade like him, but extreme success is always educational. Much of this information comes from sources that were written back in 2004-2005, so I'm not sure how he trades now.

Also check out his firm, Rotter Invest. It gives you a little insight into how he trades.

To learn from other professional traders, be sure to listen to the Forex trader podcast interviews.

Do you know anything else about Paul Rotter that you can add to this post?

Related Articles

  • Walter Peters (Naked Forex): The Inspiring Story Of How He Quit His Dream Job to...Walter Peters (Naked Forex): The Inspiring Story Of How He Quit His Dream Job to...
  • Mobile Trading AppsThe Top 5 Most Useful Trading Apps For iPhone
  • Doing research3 Steps to Test a New Forex Broker
  • 5 Unexpected Lessons That I Learned From Working at a Hedge Fund5 Unexpected Lessons That I Learned From Working at a Hedge Fund
  • Run DMCGunnar Glasses (Intercept): 90 Days of Daily Use vs Gamma Ray Flexlite
  • Peter DaviesEP21 // Peter Davies (Jigsaw Trading) on Outperforming His "Financial Advisor"
  • Trading education methods9 Popular Trading Education Methods: Pros and Cons
  • Trade Interceptor For Mac Review (September 2014 Update)Trade Interceptor For Mac Review (September 2014 Update)

Category: Trader Life Tag: Trader Success Stories

About Hugh Kimura

Hi, I'm Hugh. I'm an independent trader and researcher. The real benefit of trading that most people miss is that it's one of the most direct paths to deep personal development.

My goal is to help you master both the technical (strategies) and transpersonal (mindset) sides of trading so you can create more freedom in your life and be your truest expression of I AM.

Learn more about me here.

Nobody understand everything. Double check your assumptions. Double check others.
“Freedom (n.): To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.”

― Ayn Rand

Primary Sidebar

Trading Guides

The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Forex Backtesting

How to Figure Out Your Trader Personality Profile

The Forward Testing Guide for Beginners

How to Create a Precise Trading Plan (with PDF worksheet)

 

Make 3X your original profit, without additional risk.

Learn More

FREE Forex Hedging Guide

Forex Hedging Guide
Learn how this blacklisted trading strategy really makes money.

Download Now

Footer

Company

  • Trading Courses and Education
  • Trading Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Beware of Imposters

Community

  • YouTube
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

Tutorials & Guides

  • Best Trading Resources
  • Free Forex Trading Course for Beginners
  • Free Backtesting Guide for Beginners
  • Trader Personality Profile
  • Best Trading Books

Articles

  • Backtesting
  • Etheric Finance Podcast
  • Podcast
  • Trader Life
  • Trading Psychology
  • Trading Software Tutorials
  • Trading Strategies

Trading involves risk and can result in the loss of your investment. Invest at your own risk. Past performance does not guarantee future results. All information on this site is for informational purposes only and is not trading, investment, tax or health advice. The reader bears responsibility for his/her own investment research and decisions. Seek the advice of a qualified finance professional before making any investment and do your own research to understand all risks before investing or trading. TrueLiving Media LLC and Hugh Kimura accept no liability whatsoever for any direct or consequential loss arising from any use of this information. You are 100% responsible for your losses...and gains. You are more powerful than you know, keep expanding.

 

Copyright © 2007–2023 TrueLiving Media LLC | Terms | Privacy | Risk