Every day thousands and thousands of transactions are done between investors around the world, but lets face it, most of them will never be remembered.

For that reason, among others, the trades that do become a part of history have to be incredibly epic.

And it can't just be that they netted someone an incredible amount of money, great trades are even more than that.

A really great trade is something that happens when a trader uses all their cunning and intuition to find just the right moment to strike — sometimes when everyone else thinks they're out of their mind.

Think about it: John Paulson shorted the U.S. housing market when almost everyone else on Wall Street was bullish. Jim Chanos held on to his Enron short even as the stock was shooting up.

That takes intelligence, conviction, and grit.

Business Insider has compiled a list of traders throughout history who've used all those qualities to execute some of the greatest trades of all time.

Get inspired.