The ultra-wealthy will continue to shape the global financial landscape in 2024 through their business empires and strategic trading and investments. According to Forbes, which has been tracking billionaires and their fortunes for decades, the wealth of the world’s wealthiest people reached USD 14.2 trillion in April 2024. This represents a 14 percent increase compared to USD 12.2 trillion last year. Here’s a closer look at how billionaires trade and invest and how their strategies set trends in the financial world.
The Titans of Trading and Investing
Many of the world’s top billionaires in 2024 have amassed their fortunes by actively participating in the stock market, private equity, and even speculative investments like cryptocurrency. Figures such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bernard Arnault own some of the world’s most valuable companies and maintain diversified portfolios that keep them on the cutting edge of global finance.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk continues to dominate the financial world in 2024 with a net worth of over $251 billion. While most of Musk’s wealth comes from his stakes in Tesla and SpaceX, he has ventured into other areas, such as social media platform X.
Musk’s trading and investment activities are hard to track as they are as unpredictable as his business ventures. He is known to make headlines with his bold, contrarian moves in the market. He has ventured into artificial intelligence, space exploration, and renewable energy sources and is on track to be the first trillionaire by 2027.
Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos — the founder of Amazon — has amassed a fortune of over USD 190 billion, placing him alongside Musk and Arnault at the top of the most wealthy list. Even though Bezos stepped down as CEO of Amazon in 2021, his influence in the financial world has only grown.
Bezos is a master of strategic diversification, as he expands his investments beyond e-commerce into various industries like space exploration, media, and real estate. His real estate portfolio is worth over half a billion and includes luxury properties in New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.
One of Bezos’s most remarkable ventures is Blue Origin, his private aerospace manufacturer. He is also heavily invested in the media industry, and the 2013 acquisition of The Washington Post was a strategic move to grow his influence in the sector.
Bernard Arnault
Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH, remains one of the wealthiest men in the world, with his wealth surpassing USD 180 billion. While much of his wealth stems from luxury brands like Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior, Arnault has continued growing his empire across multiple sectors by expanding his portfolio into other investment areas.
Arnault has a calculated approach to wealth management and actively invests in art, property, and tech.
Billionaire Strategies: Diversification and Long-Term Vision
A common trend among billionaires in 2024 is their use of diversification to safeguard their wealth. Warren Buffett, known as the “Oracle of Omaha,” emphasises long-term value investing through his company, Berkshire Hathaway.
Buffett’s philosophy of buying and holding high-quality stocks over the long term has paid off, with his net worth standing at USD 144.5 billion. His strategy contrasts sharply with more volatile traders like Musk, but both approaches demonstrate the importance of adapting to personal financial goals.
Diversification is also evident in the portfolios of Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founders. These billionaires invest heavily in technology, AI, and renewable energy. They mitigate risk by spreading their wealth across various industries and regions.
How To Utilise Professional Tools To Invest Like Billionaires
Billionaires rely heavily on advanced analytics and cutting-edge tools to inform their investment decisions. They manage their wealth through a combination of personal insight and expert advisement that help them navigate complex markets. They can employ teams of analysts, leverage sophisticated technology, and take risks to get high rewards.
For most ordinary investors, this level of access might seem out of reach. However, thanks to modern trading platforms like OANDA, trading with large sums of money without worrying about financial losses is possible.
OANDA Prop Trader users have access to virtual funds that range from USD 10,000 to USD 500,000. Prop trading was traditionally reserved for large financial institutions, but firms like OANDA have democratized access and made it available to individual traders.
OANDA’s Prop Trader Challenge is structured to test traders’ ability to manage risk and generate profit. Passing this challenge unlocks access to real-time trading tools and potentially huge profit-sharing opportunities of up to 90 percent. This means that, just like billionaires who surround themselves with market experts, you, too, can gain the upper hand with data-driven insights, high-level tools, and institutional-grade market access.
Billionaires Leading the Future of Investing
In 2024, billionaires are not only amassing wealth through their businesses but are also setting the pace in global financial markets with bold, diversified investment strategies. As billionaires continue to push the boundaries of traditional and speculative investments, they remain a source of inspiration — and, at times, mystery — for aspiring investors. Their ability to leverage both advanced technology and long-term strategy offers invaluable lessons on the power of adaptation and diversification in today’s volatile financial world.
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