Male traders have traditionally taken the limelight, but women have been making good inroads into the financial world over the last 20 years.
Who are the best female traders to watch in 2023?
Here we’ve picked a selection of 6 traders who we think are worth keeping an eye on over the next couple of years.
Jennifer Fan
Jennifer Fan grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance and a Bachelor of Science in Statistics, from New York University.
In 2002, she started work at Bank of America, then moved on to Morgan Stanley. There she worked as an analysis before becoming a trader in the global liquids group.
She became a specialist in commodities, partly because of their tangible nature.
In 2009, she joinined Arrowhawk Capital Management, becoming a portfolio manager and partner.
She was named a Hedge Fund Rising Star by Institutional Investor in 2011.
At the time, Fan was one of the youngest hedge fund managers in the industry. She was also one of the few female hedge fund managers in New York.
In 2012, she made Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list.
Currently, she is CEO of Fan Family Office, a private wealth and asset management firm in New York.
Lucy Baldwin
Lucy Baldwin is the global head of markets research & equity advisory at Citigroup. She is made Forbes’ 30 Under 30: Finance two years running.
Lucy Baldwin grew up in Shropshire, UK and was inspired to pursue a career in finance while reading Barbarians at The Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco while at university.
In 2004, she completed a BSc in economics from the University of Birmingham, UK.
She worked as co-head of European equity research at Goldman Sachs for 9 years. While there, she made Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Finance list for top young traders, bankers and dealmakers, both in 2012 and 2013.
In 2015 she started at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, as head of European equity sales, until moving to Credit Suisse.
In 2020, Market Choice Awards made her winnner of the European Women in Finance Awards.
She moved to Citigroup in London in April 2021, and is currently the global head of markets research & equity advisory. She sits on the equities executive committee and the markets executive committee.
Nelisiwe Masango
Nelisiwe Masango is a trader and entrepreneur. She believes in empowering people, especially women, to make sound financial decisions and invest in their financial independence. She has been listed as one of Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top Black African Women Entrepreneurs to Watch.
Nelisiwe Masango grew up in Boksburg, a suburb 30 km east of Johannesburg, South Africa. She started a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Entrepreneurial Management but left after one year.
In September 2013, Masango founded Bear Run Investments, an investment training company, quickly receiving its Services SETA accreditation. At the time, she was the youngest owner of an accredited financial training institution in South Africa.
This company was set up to help train South Africans in financial literacy, budgeting and saving.
At around the same time, Nelisiwe Masango founded Fefine, which stands for ‘females with finances’ which promotes financial awareness and security amoung women and girls.
In 2016, Nelisiwe Masango was listed as a Sowetan Top Young Boss. Then in 2017, she received the Frost & Sullivan African Growth Innovation & Leadership Award.
Masango is now CEO and Founder of Ubuntu Invest. Ubuntu Invest aims to provide clients with the means to live good lives, while pursuing its vision of creating 100 new millionaires in five years.
Raghee Horner
Raghee Horner is Managing Director of Futures Trading at Simpler Trading and has been trading her own account for over 30 years.
She describes herself as a Forex/Crypto Trader and Digital Asset Investor based in Hialeah, Florida. She has also been chief currency analyst for IBFX.
She went to college and graduated with a degree in English, and although she was planning to go to law school, she chose instead to start trading full time.
Raghee Horner has published a number of books on trading through Wiley & Sons, including Forex Trading For Maximum Profit (2004), 30 Days of Forex Trading (2006) and Forex on 5 Hours a Week (2009). She is currently working on a book about trading psychology.
A fan of technical analysis, she has developed a number of indicators, including the 34EMA Wave and GRaB Candles indicators, which are used by traders all over the world.
Horner primarily trades the currency and futures markets, using fundamentals, technicals and price action over a variety of timeframes. She prefers to follow the trend and enjoys exploring different approaches to trading psychology.
Laura Wong Hon Chan
Laura Wong Hon Chan is an interest rate options trader, who is currently a director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York.
In 2019, she made Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list for finance.
She was born in Baie du Tombeau, Mauritius, and grew up on the island. She is billingual, speaking both English and French fluently.
She studied at Lafayette College, completing a Bachelor of Arts/Science in mathematics and economics in 2012. Her degree concentrated on financial policy and analysis, and she minored in computational methods.
On becoming vice president of the US rates options trading desk at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in 2018, her responsibilities included maximizing hedge efficiency and liquidity, while also communicating with clients to gauge their macro views and investment profiles.
While there, she succeeded in increasing the exotics desks at by 40% in 2018.
As a director since 2020, she works with hedge funds, corporate clients and asset managers. Her reponsibilities include risk management for a variety of derivatives, including structured swaps and vanilla options.
Her specialisms include interest rates, fixed income, macroeconomics, trading and derivatives.
Jordan Zarrilli
Jordan Zarrilli is an equities derivatives trader at Goldman Sachs. In 2019 she made the Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list for finance.
Jordan Zarrilli attended the University of Pennsylvannia, where she studied Systems Science and Engineering. She graduated in 2011 with a BSE (Bachelor of Science and Engineering).
After graduating, Zarrilli started work at UBS Investment bank as an associate equity derivatives trader until her move to Goldman Sachs in 2015.
Starting as an equity derivatives trader, Zarrilli became vice president of the equity derivatives desk in 2016. Her responsibilities include managing risk on the equity derivatives desk for both consumer companies and financials.
If you want to know more about any of these traders to watch in 2023, we have in-depth articles on each of them, which you can access by clicking on their titles.