Real-Time Billionaires Methodology

Forbes has been chronicling the ups and downs of the richest people on the planet for a quarter of a century, annually publishing the rankings of the 400 richest Americans and the World’s Billionaires. In recent years, thanks to leaps in technology and the internet, we’ve been updating those figures more frequently while also continuing to enrich and expand our wealth coverage.  Over the past year, we’ve built more than 2,000 wealth list profile pages that pull together real-time content, data, and social connections.

The release of our Real-Time Billionaires marks another leap forward.  We are now tracking the biggest gains and losses for the public holdings of a select group of high-profile billionaires. The value of the billionaires’ top public holdings, up to three maximum and each worth at least $700 million, are updated on a 15-minute delay every five minutes from the time the New York Stock Exchange opens at 9:30 until trading ends at 4 p.m. A rotating cast of the five winners and losers throughout the day is featured at the top of the page followed by the complete list of individuals listed in order of their March 2012 billionaire rankings. When the market isn’t open, the numbers will show snapshots captured as of the last market close.

These figures reflect the changes in people’s top U.S. public holdings, not their total net worth.  They do not include the value of any additional U.S. public holdings beyond a person’s three biggest. Options worth more than $100 million, as is the case with Facebook‘s Mark Zuckerberg, are included. We use ADRs for notable international billionaires. Foreign stocks that don’t have ADRs and private holdings are not counted.

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Biggest Winners:

Carlos Slim Helu

Honorary Chairman, 

América Móvil

743.93 M

Jeff Bezos

CEO, 

Amazon.com

200.48 M

Amancio Ortega

184.80 M

Lakshmi Mittal

Chairman and CEO, 

ArcelorMittal

85.28 M

 

 

 

 

Howard Schultz

Chairman and CEO, 

Starbucks

80.06 M

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Biggest Losers:

Warren Buffett

CEO, 

Berkshire Hathaway

618.58 M

Jim Walton

Chairman and CEO, 

Arvest Bank Group, Inc

280.16 M

Alice Walton

Chairman, 

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

282.36 M

S. Robson Walton

Chairman, 

Wal-Mart Stores

279.67 M

Christy Walton

Co-Chair, 

Children's Scholarship Fund

277.70 M