Market Wizards

Market Wizards is a book written by Jack D. Schwager and published in 1988 in which he interviews a wide range of traders with excellent track records of profitability.

The book contains four parts covering interviews with traders in a wide range of markets. The interviews contain a mixture of facts about the trading careers of the interviewees, their philosophy, and many trading anecdotes. After each of the interviews, Schwager summarises what he believes are the key things to be learned from that particular trader. The book also contains a fifth part on the psychology of trading and two appendices on program trading and basic options theory. If you want to get some insights, by way of verbatim interviews, into the thought processes and trading rules.

Among thosed profiled in this book are Ed Seykota, Bruce Kovner, Paul Tudor Jones, Michael Steinhardt, Van K. Tharp and James B. Rogers.

Traders Interviews
Schwager kicks off the series of interviews-and hence the investigation into their thought process- by talking to a man he describes as one of the pioneers of commodity trading- Michael Marcus of Canmarc Trading Co. His discussion with Marcus is typical of the book as a whole. The reader effectively eavesdrops on a conversation between the two men that starts with how Marcus got into the business and continues through subjects such as the skill necessary to become a good trader.

Follow-up books
After the success of Market Wizards, Schwager in 1992 released a second book, The New Market Wizards, and then in 2001 a third book, Stock Market Wizards