Wall Street is populated by countless ambitious traders hoping to make a
fortune by beating the market, but only a handful get to call themselves
“Market Wizards.” This term, coined by hedge fund expert Jack D.
Schwager more than 25 years ago, has been a part of a best-selling
series of books featuring interviews with today’s greatest hedge fund
managers, including Ray Dalio, Stanley Drunkenmiller, Joel Greenblatt,
Paul Tudor Jones and Colm O’Shea.
In THE LITTLE BOOK OF MARKET WIZARDS: Lessons from the Greatest
Traders (WILEY; February 2014; Hardcover & eBook; $17.09),
Schwager combines the lessons learned from the world’s best traders into
one, easy-to-digest volume. This book looks into the mindset and habits
of highly successful traders, providing insights and tips that all
traders can use to improve their results. Schwager also shares his own
experience as a futures trader, as well as perspectives gleaned from
three decades spent interviewing industry titans.
Peter L. Brandt, a legendary commodities trader, writes in the foreword:
“What novice and aspiring market speculator would not want to spend time
with and pick the brains of 59 of the world’s most successful and
accomplished market speculators? That is exactly what Jack Schwager’s
Market Wizards books offer, bringing to us all the insights, processes
of market operations, risk management principles and key lessons from
“Hall of Fame” stock, interest-rate, forex, and futures market
speculators.”
Schwager identifies what separates highly successful market
practitioners—the Market Wizards—from ordinary traders. Each chapter in
his book focuses on a specific theme essential to market success and
describes how all market participants can benefit by incorporating
various proven traits, behaviors and philosophies into their own trading.
These themes include:
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Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. Each mistake, if recognized and
acted upon, provides an opportunity for improving a trading approach.
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Pick a trading style that matches your personality. A sound
methodology that is very successful for one trader can be a poor fit
and a losing strategy for another trader.
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If you’re confident in a position, bet big. If you’re not, bet small.
Estimate the probability of success and bet accordingly.
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Don’t focus on making money, focus on protecting what you have.
Sometimes just doing nothing can be the best strategy if the market
doesn’t present favorable opportunities.
These themes are particularly sentient today, at a time of great change
for the hedge fund industry. As alternative investing strategies become
available to a larger pool of investors through the proliferation of
liquid alternatives, ETFs and online trading, competition in the
alternative investment industry will become fiercer than ever. Traders
who want to succeed and avoid making mistakes would do well to follow
the lessons compiled by Schwager in The Little Book of Market Wizards.
Together, these lessons provide a blueprint for any trader that hopes to
one day be a ‘Market Wizard.’
Wiley
Melissa Torra, 201-748-6834
Publicist
mtorra@wiley.com