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A trader with an inspirational story for all budding currency enthusiasts. Elena Ambrosiadou demonstrates perfectly what can be achieved from forex trading and a burning desire to succeed. By profession she was a chemical engineer working for BP, but Ambrosiadou keenly recognized the potential of speculating on currency exchange rates, and set about earning an “extra income” part time to supplement her day job. The starting point for practically all amateur traders. Starting with a £60,000 account (USD $95,000) she grew it by 50% on a part time basis over two years. That was all the proof she needed to go full throttle in to trading in 1992, and by 2004 was managing over £2.3 billion ($3.6 billion), and became Britain’s highest paid woman, earning £20 million ($31 million) per year. A meteoric rise to prominence and wealth over a 12 year period. Her fund, IKOS Asset Management is a quant fund (quantitative), which simply means they take a very mathematical and methodical approach to analyzing the market. They look at facts and act on them without involving human emotion or “gut feelings”. Weighing up the facts, and calculating the probabilities of various outcomes, they bet accordingly and over time rely on the odds playing out in their favour. This is a characteristic found in all great traders. There is no short term obsession with “wins and losses”. They simply execute their strategy and rely on their edge placing the odds in their favour over the long term. Very similar to the approach a casino takes – find your long term edge and play the probabilities. One of the other defining characteristics which Ambrosiadou and IKOS have displayed from the very start is their highly conservative risk profile. Ambrosiadou is not a cavalier risk taker chasing the glory of fast returns. The ethos of the fund is one of safety. By concentrating on playing it safe, IKOS has been able to ensure consistency, sustainability and longevity. Since 1992 Ambrosiadou’s flagship fund has returned just 10.2% annualised. This safe style of trading, which works on the premise that profits will naturally come so long as you protect against draw-down, has made IKOS very attractive for investors consistently for the past 23 years.

Profile: Elena Ambrosiadou At one point she was Britain’s highest paid woman. The extraordinary story of this “part time forex trader”.

Starting with £60,000 as a money spinning side-line to supplement her regular career, she grew her fund to over £2.3 billion. We take a look at this extraordinary trader.

This is perhaps the most striking element that aspiring amateur traders would do well to take notice of. In her first 2 years of “trading from home”, Ambrosiadou gained 50% on her account. She grew the account from £60,000 up to £90,000 over 2 years. Her fund now makes on average just 10.2% each year. Most amateur traders would turn their nose up at the prospect of “only” making 10.2% per month, never mind per year! And yet Ambrosiadou has grown a multi-billion dollar fund, pays herself £20 million per year, and has a personal net worth of over £200 million ($320 million). She achieved that level of wealth in just 12 years. Not bad going with only 10.2% return per year. How many amateurs are chasing 100% returns per month, fast profits, and instant riches? How many amateurs are not even prepared to work for 1 year to achieve success because they want it “now”? The paradox is that the impatient trader who won’t settle for small returns, ends up wasting their entire life achieving nothing, whereas a pro like Ambrosiadou will happily trade cautiously and conservatively for “small” returns, and very quickly build a personal fortune of hundreds of millions. How has she done it? By playing it safe, and fully understanding the reality of trading. She did not grow her own £60,000 initial stake up to £2.3 billion in 12 years. She didn’t need to. All she had to do was show consistency, reliability, and a cautious approach to risk. It was consistency, not large profits that turned her in to a wealthy woman. Growing her personal account steadily by 50% over a two year period, was all that was needed to be able to set up a professional fund and attract investors. From that point on, people literally threw money at her, and she got rich trading other people’s money. You don’t need to chase riches. Be consistent, trade safely, and aim for slow, steady, but reliable gains on an account. That’s all it takes for the big money to come and find you. Elena Ambrosiadou did not start out as a career trader and never received formal training in trading financial markets. She did however take every opportunity to understand the mechanics of how markets really move and has always shown strict adherence to detailed and calculated planning and execution of her trades. There is a lot that individual traders can learn from the way her forex trading life has evolved. We can certainly emulate her methodology much to our future benefit.

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