Book Description
Acclaimed trading expert and bestselling author of the Market Wizards books, Jack Schwager, has returned with a new and fascinating collection of interviews with the best stock market traders and investors of our time.
Focusing exclusively on successful players in the stock market, Schwager delivers informative profiles and trading strategies from fifteen traders and investors who have ridden the most dynamic bull market in U.S. history to stunning success.
The past decade has witnessed the market-shaking introduction of the Internet, a collapse in commodity prices, and dramatic failures in some of the world's leading hedge funds. How have these traders managed to dwarf the already substantial gains realized by the stock market during the 1990s, while largely sidestepping the market's periodic downdrafts? What separates them from ordinary investors, and even the vast majority of professional fund managers? And what lessons can the average trader or investor learn from these exceptional traders?
Schwager gets the answers from phenomenally successful traders, includingÂ
- Michael Lauer, an outspoken fund manager, who explains why he believes many of the country's leading mutual funds are following a flawed strategy and whose own fund provided investors with a 50-fold return in seven years
- Mark Cook, a midwestern farmer who registered back-to-back annual gains of 563 and 322 percent in national trading contests he entered in 1992 and 1993 and has continued to realize stratospheric returns in his own account since then
- Steve Lescarbeau, who developed a computerized trading model that has earned him an average of 70 percent per year with an incredibly low maximum drawdown of only 3 percent
- Steve Cohen, a modern-day trading legend who manages billions and who has averaged trading returns of 90 percent during the past seven years with only three down months (the worst, a minuscule 2 percent loss)
- Mark Minervini, a junior high school dropout, who has averaged a 220 percent annual return during the past five years, while keeping his maximum quarterly loss to a fraction of one percent
These are just a few of the traders you'll meet in Stock Market Wizards' all-star lineup of market masters.
In the final chapter, Schwager pulls it all together, distilling the essential advice and insights from all the interviews into a list of 65 market lessons, which are bound to be invaluable to both novices and market professionals.
Stock Market Wizards gives you the stories, tips. and an inside glimpse into today's vibrant market and the traders who can ride the bull, battle the bear, and still come out on top.
Amazon.com
Newcomers to Jack Schwager's series on top traders, as well as fervent fans of his first two entries Market Wizards and The New Market Wizards, will find that Stock Market Wizards offers another revealing look at a wide spectrum of trading styles through the eyes of 15 extraordinarily successful individuals. Transcripts of incisive Q&A sessions between Schwager and traders--including Michael Lauer, Dana Galante, Alphonse "Buddy" Fletcher Jr., and Claudio Guazzoni--examine the ways each approaches their specialty, whether it be value stocks, mutual funds, short selling, options trading, or other market niches. After brief but interesting introductions that place the subjects' trading practices into perspective, Schwager coaxes from them penetrating observations on setting goals, finding opportunities, learning from mistakes, and operating on a day-to-day basis. While some participants refuse to divulge proprietary practices, and Anthony admits that many traders' activities hold little relevance to individual investors, the basic doctrines nonetheless contain nuggets of wisdom that can be applied by many nonprofessionals. And, in the final "Wizard Lessons" chapter, Schwager details the 65 overarching principles (such as Trade Your Personality, Be Willing to Take a Loss, and The Importance of Setting Goals) he culled from these extensive conversations. --Howard Rothman