Synopses & Reviews
The Investment Classic from Jack D. Schwager, Market Wizards, is back with a brand new, never-before-seen Preface and Afterword from the author!"I've read the book at several stages of my career as it shows the staying power of good down-to-earth wisdoms of true practitioners with skin in the game. This is the central document showing the heuristics that real-life traders use to manage their affairs, how people who do rather than talk have done things. Twenty years from now, it will still be fresh. There is no other like it."
—Nassim N. Taleb, former derivatives trader, author of The Black Swan, and professor, NYU-Poly
What separates the world's top traders from the vast majority of unsuccessful investors? Jack Schwager sets out to answer tis question in his interviews with superstar money-makers including Bruce Kovner, Richard Dennis, Paul Tudor Jones, Michel Steinhardt, Ed Seykota, Marty Schwartz, Tom Baldwin, and more in Market Wizards: Interviews with Top Traders, now in paperback and ebook.
This classic interview-style investment text from a financial expert is a must-read for traders and professional financiers alike, as well as anyone interested in gaining insight into how the world of finance really works.
- Filled with anecdotes about market experiences, including the story of a trader who after wiping out several times, turned $30,000 into $80 million and an electrical engineer from MIT whose computerized trading has earned returns of 250,000 percent over sixteen years
- Identifies the factors that define a successful trader
- Now availabe as in digital formats.
One of the most insightful, bestselling trading books of all time.
A noted financial expert interviews the world's most successful traders.
Review
“Market Wizards is one of the most fascinating books ever written about Wall Street. A few of the “Wizards” are my friends—and Jack Schwager has nailed their modus operandi on the head.” —Martin W. Zweig, Ph.D., Editor The Zweig Forecast
“It’s diffi cult enough to develop a method that works. It then takes experience to believe what your method is telling you. But the toughest task of all is turning analysis into money. If you don’t believe it, try it. These guys have it all: a method, the conviction and the discipline to act decisively time after time, regardless of distractions and pressures. They are heroes of Wall Street, and Jack Schwager’s book brings their characters vividly to life.” —Robert R. Prechter, Jr., Editor of The Elliott Wave Theorist
Synopsis
How do the world's top traders make millions of dollars in the markets ???????????? sometimes in a matter of only weeks or even days? That's precisely the question Jack Schwager was trying to answer when he interviewed 17 superstar money-makers including Richard Dennis, Paul Tudor Jones, Ed Seykota, Marty Schwartz, Tom Baldwin and others. After reading this best-selling book, you'll know what ingredients enable these top traders to consistently work their financial magic in the markets while so many others walk away losers. One of the top-selling trading books of all-time
Synopsis
How do some of the world's most successful traders amass millions of dollars in a year— or sometimes in hours? Are they masters of a priceless wizardry or simply the very lucky winners in a random market lottery that allows only a few players to become fantastically wealthy? What are the secrets of their unheard-of successes?
After interviewing top traders in a variety of markets, market expert Jack D. Schwager concludes that while method undoubtedly accounts largely for trading success, no one approach is used by all, or even most, of the traders interviewed. Some are technicians, monitoring price action. Others are fundamentalists, trying to forecast future price levels based on what they know of a market, an industry, or a company. Some act largely on personal initiative and intuition, while still others rely completely on automated systems.
Even more interesting is Schwager's finding that, as great a role as method plays, it must be accompanied by the "proper" mental posture—a notion that surfaces frequently in the interviews. The secret seems to have more to do with personal attitude than with approach. What mental disciplines, what emotional responses, what intangible personal ingredients make these top traders so mysteriously effective? What enables them to work financial magic while so many others walk away losers?
MARKET WIZARDS allows the reader to delve into the minds of these professional traders. It explains the very elements of their success…different approaches used in different markets...trading rules that each of them adhere to…personal advice for other traders.
Understand what it takes to become a successful trader. Hear it in the very words of the MARKET WIZARDS.
Synopsis
The world's top trader's reveal the secrets of their phenomenal success! How do the world's most successful traders amass tens, hundreds of millions of dollars a year? Are they masters of an occult knowledge, lucky winners in a random market lottery, natural-born virtuosi—Mozarts of the markets? In search of an answer, bestselling author Jack D. Schwager interviewed dozens of top traders across most financial markets. While their responses differed in the details, all of them could be boiled down to the same essential formula: solid methodology + proper mental attitude = trading success. In Market Wizards Schwager lets you hear, in their own words, what those super-traders had to say about their unprecedented successes, and he distils their responses down into a set of guiding principles you can use to become a trading star in your own right.
- Features interviews with superstar money-makers including Bruce Kovner, Richard Dennis, Paul Tudor Jones, Michel Steinhardt, Ed Seykota, Marty Schwartz, Tom Baldwin, and more
- Tells the true stories behind sensational trading coups, including the one about the trader who turned $30,000 into $80 million, the hedge fund manager who's averaged 30% returns every year for the past twenty-one years, and the T-bond futures trader who parlayed $25,000 into $2 billion in a single day!
"Market Wizards is one of the most fascinating books ever written about Wall Street. A few of the 'Wizards' are my friends—and Jack Schwager has nailed their modus operandi on the head."
--Martin W. Zweig, Ph.D., Editor, The Zweig Forecast
Synopsis
How do some of the world's most successful traders amass millions of dollars in a yearor sometimes in hours? Are they masters of a priceless wizardry or simply the very lucky winners in a random market lottery that allows only a few players to become fantastically wealthy? What are the secrets of their unheard-of successes? And what mental disciplines, what emotional responses, what intangible personal ingredients make these top traders so mysteriously effective? What enables them to work financial magic while so many others walk away losers?
Featuring interviews with seventeen of the most successful market-beaters, including Bruce Kovner, Richard Dennis, Paul Tudor Jones, Michael Steinhardt, Ed Seykota, Marty Schwartz, and Tom Baldwin, Market Wizards is packed with real-life anecdotes from the trading world. From the electrical engineer from MIT whose computerized trading earned returns of 250,000% over sixteen years to the trader who, after wiping out several times, successfully turned a $30,000 investment into an $80 million fortune, Schwager identifies the factors that define the Market Wizards.
Market Wizards takes the reader into the minds of a few of the most successful traders of all time, explaining that while markets may change and techniques may change, the underlying core principles that lead to trading success stay the same. The best testament to the continued relevance of Market Wizards in today's markets is that so many money managers who read the original edition early in their careers make it required reading for new traders.
Synopsis
THE INVESTMENT CLASSIC"I've read Market Wizards at several stages of my career as it shows the staying power of good down-to-earth wisdoms of true practitioners with skin in the game. This is the central document showing the heuristics that real-life traders use to manage their affairs, how people who do rather than talk have done things. Twenty years from now, it will still be fresh. There is no other like it."
NASSIM N. TALEB, former derivatives trader, author of The Black Swan, and professor, NYU-Poly
"Market Wizards is one of the most fascinating books ever written about Wall Street. A few of the 'Wizards' are my friendsand Jack Schwager has nailed their modus operandi on the head."
MARTIN W. ZWEIG, PhD, Editor, The Zweig Forecast
"It is difficult enough to develop a method that works. It then takes experience to believe what your method is telling you. But the toughest task of all is turning analysis into money. If you don't believe it, try it. These guys have it all: a method, the conviction, and the discipline to act decisively time after time, regardless of distractions and pressures. They are heroes of Wall Street, and Jack Schwager's book brings their characters vividly to life."
ROBERT R. PRECHTER, JR., Editor, The Elliott Wave Theorist
About the Author
Jack Schwager is an executive director and senior portfolio manager at Fortune Group, an international hedge fund advisory firm. He is the principal investment manager of Fortune’s Market Wizards Funds. His prior experience includes over 30 years on Wall Street, including 22 years as director of futures research for some of Wall Street’s leading fi rms, and ten years as the co-principal of a commodity trading advisory business. Mr. Schwager began his career with Reynolds Securities as a research analyst (1971 to 1973), and then moved to Loeb Rhoades Hornblower where he became director of futures research (1973 to 1979). From 1979 to 1983 he was director of futures research at Smith Barney, and from 1983 to 1984 he was director of research (for one trading group) at Commodities Corporation. He was director of futures research at Paine Webber from 1984 to 1988, and director of futures research at Prudential Securities from 1988 to 1996. Between 1996 and 1999 he continuedto work for Prudential as a consultant.
Mr. Schwager has written extensively on the futures industry and great traders (in all financial markets). His first book, A Complete Guide to the Futures Markets, published in 1984 and is considered to be one of the classic reference works in the fi eld. More than a decade later he revised and expanded this original work into the three volume series, Schwager on Futures, consisting of Fundamental Analysis (1995), Technical Analysis (1996), and Managed Trading: Myths and Truths (1996). He is also the author of Getting Started in Technical Analysis (1999), which is part of John Wiley’s popular “Getting Started” series. Mr. Schwager is perhaps best known for his best-selling series of interviews with the greatest hedge fund managers of the last two decades, which includes Market Wizards (1989 and 2006), The New Market Wizards (1992), and Stock Market Wizards (2001). Mr. Schwager is a frequent seminar speaker and has lectured on a range of analytical topics with particular focus on the characteristics of great traders, fallacies of hedge fund investing, technical analysis, and trading system evaluation. He holds a BA in Economics from Brooklyn College (1970) and an MA in Economics from Brown University (1971).
Table of Contents
Preface, ix
Prologue, xiii
My own story, xv
Part 1: Futures and Currencies
Taking the mystery our of futures, 3
The interbank currency market defined, 7
Michael Marcus: Blighting never strikes twice, 9
Bruce Kovner: The world trader, 51
Richard Dennis: A legend retires, 85
Paul Tudor Jones: The art of aggressive trading, 117
Gary Bielfeldt: Yes, they do trade T-bonds in Peoria, 141
Ed Seykota: Everybody gets what they want, 151
Larry Hite: Respecting Risk, 175
Part 2: Mostly Stocks
Michael Steinhardt: The concept of variant perception, 193
William O'Neil: The art of stock selection, 219
David Ryan: Stock investment as a treasure hunt, 237
Marty Schwartz: Champion trader, 257
Part 3: A Little Bit of Everything
James B. Rogers, Jr.: Buying value and selling hysteria, 283
Mark Weinstein: High-percentage trader, 321
Part 4: The View From the Floor
Brian Gelber: Broker turned trader, 345
Tom Baldwin: The fearless pit trader, 367
Tony Saliba: "One lot" triumphs, 387
Part 5: The Psychology of Trading
Dr. Van K. Tharp: The psychology of trading, 411
The trade: A personal experience, 431
Postscript: Dreams and trading, 437
Final Word, 439
Appendix1: Program trading and portfolio Insurance, 441
Appendix 2: Options—understanding the basics, 443
Glossary, 447