Stock Market Wizards: Interviews with America's Top Stock Traders - Hardcover

Schwager, Jack D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471485551 ISBN 13: 9780471485551

Publisher: Wiley, 2001

Synopsis

This decade has witnessed the most dynamic bull market in US stock history, a collapse in commodity prices, and dramatic failures in some of the world's leading hedge funds. How have some traders managed to significantly outperform a stock market that,until recently, moved virtually straight up? This book will feature interviews with those traders who achieved phenomenal success, from an Ohio farmer who has constantly made triple-digit returns, to a Turkish emigre who transformed a USD16000 account into USD6 million, to spectacularly successful professional hedge-fund managers such as Michael Lancer of the Lancer Group and Michael Masters of Capital Management. Today, the action is on the stock market. This book will be a must-have for that sector, as well as for the legions of individuals who eagerly bought Market Wizards.

About this title

Review:

Stock Market Wizards looks at 15 of the men and women who have beaten the US indexes year in, year out--and tries to uncover their secrets. In a world of tracker funds, computer-generated buying decisions, and roller-coaster stock prices, the ability to consistently outperform the market is a precious commodity.

Each trader is interviewed at length. The dialogue is then presented Question and Answer style on the page, and at the conclusion of each chapter, Schwager summarises what lessons can be drawn from their replies. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, in a clutch of mavericks who beat the crowd, every one is different. There are obsessives like Mark Minervini, with his 14-hour trading days, who claims not to have taken a day off in ten years; but then there is Mark Cook, who combines caning the market with working on his farm. There is Ahmet Okumus, whose goal is to be the best money manager in the business, this year and every year; but there is Stuart Walton who walked away from trading for several years, and would rather be a writer and artist anyway. Schwager grills each on how they pick their stocks, the technical analysis they employ, how they choose to hold or sell, how they structure their portfolios. Each, it emerges, has his own "edge". Michael Lauer, with his constant search for value stocks, uses a six-step selection process that identifies stocks with good return and risk prospects; David Shaw invests heavily in research, and cuts his transaction costs to the bone, allowing him to profit from tiny market inefficiencies. Each, again, is different, but in the fascinating summary chapter, Schwager identifies the key qualities they all share. All have failed and come back better and wiser dealers. All, no matter how laid back or eccentric they may appear, have a rock-solid trading philosophy and strategy. All are flexible and responsive to change--and all work like demons.

It's a fascinating glimpse into minds of stock-market winners, and the 65 lessons he draws would form a good blueprint for anyone's forays into shares. But perhaps the best is No. 1: "There is no single true path". In the end, you have to do it yourself. --John Rennie

Review:

"...there is not a more important trilogy for you to read..." -- Shares, October 2002

"An important resource." -- Financial Times, 31st March 2001

"It is very readable and informative with plenty of insights into trader psychology." -- Lloyd's List, 24th February 2001

About this edition

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0471485551
• ISBN 13: 9780471485551
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352