Wall Street is not a place for the faint of heart. Stock market trading is a cut-throat world where judgments could either make or break a person’s future. While most traders will base their activities on discernible market trends, some might choose to go against the grain and take an enormous gamble which defies all market logic. Every so often, though, the left-field trade is the one that sets a person up for life.

In the infographic below, creators Easy Life Cover profiled 10 astute traders who took bold decisions and ultimately saw their faith rewarded handsomely. Any list of Wall Street legends should start with the original shark Jesse Livermore. Nearly a century after his most famous moment, he is still held in awe by all those who partake in stock trading, for it was he who shorted the notorious Wall Street crash of 1929. Be selling stock at a high before its value plummeted, he ended up $100 million richer, and that was almost 90 years ago, so it would equate to billions today. He continues to be held as the benchmark towards which all modern traders aspire.

Closer to the modern day, few called a stock shock as brilliantly as Jim Chanos. When Enron was buoyant at the turn of the century, the auditor went short on the company’s stock as he knew from analysing their accounts that a storm was brewing. Once the energy firm collapsed, amid the stunned masses was a substantially richer Chanos, who knew something that very few could ever have envisaged.

The list of legendary traders makes for impressive reading, but for every Livermore or Chanos, there are numerous others who put their necks on the line on Wall Street and were literally made to pay for their poorly-placed faith. Here’s 10 of the best to have ever played the stock market game.