Conversations with America's Top Traders - The New Market Wizards

Critically acclaim writer Jack D. Schwager continues his quest on finding out what it really takes to be a successful trader. After he finished his first book he came to the conclusion that winning in the markets is a matter of discipline and skill, not luck. In this book, Schwager keeps looking for new insights on what are some of those skills needed to succeed.

The New Market Wizards brings us another bunch of entertaining interviews that shine a light from different perspectives on how to beat the markets. There are so many different methods of trading found in this book, that you are bound to find something that fits your own personal style.

Just like the first book, you will have a lot of fun reading these interviews. This book is full of tips and ideas that will help you increase your knowledge of the markets. If you are looking for really good books on trading, buy these remarkable series.

Wisdom comes mainly by experience and not theoretical concepts of trading rules. The author is a well known industry expert. He extensively interviews extremely successful traders about their life, methods and most memorable experiences in their careers. Each conversation is unique in it's own way and it's a great learning curve if you can absorb it. It is more of a reference book than a casual read if you are a curious/novice/intermediate trader looking to develop your skills and explore your potential weaknesses. There is a lot of discussion about hedging, handling losses, entry/exit of positions, position sizing and different trading styles and philosophies. You could also keenly observe how they reacted to economic events and went about with their trading executions.

What this book is not: No technical analysis rules, No rules engraved in stone that there is a particular way in which you should trade and certainly no fatherly advice on stocks.

A must read for all traders and fund managers.

Jack Schwager is a great author. He asks very intelligent questions and seems to have a deep though un-intuitive knowledge of the futures game. (See the CRT interview, overly analytical people mask intuitive traits). The William Eckhardt interview is incredible and should be re-read many times over. This interview alone is well worth the price of the book. I have one major gripe with the author however. Schwager seemed to have had a serious lapse in judgement by including some of the traders that he did. There is no doubt that all the traders interviewed in the book are of high caliber but some definetly cannot be thought of as "Market Wizards". Who am I talking about? Linda Raschke, Tom Basso, Charles Faulkner maybe even Trader Vic. Who is very underrated? Jeff Yass, the man is the best options player around. Druckenmiller, Trout, and Eckhardt are as good as it gets.These legendary names should not be sullied by the inclusion of the above mentioned traders. Schwager left out some amazing traders, what about the people at Kenzie, Niederhoffer ( I know he blew out), Louis Bacon, John Henry, Willem Kookyer and Grenville Craig? Anyone ever heard of Jullian Robertson? Please Jack, if you ever write Market Wizards 3, try to include all or even some of these people. Not traders that you speak with at "Omega" conferences.

I read this book , the original version ,and the updated version published in 2012, and found the original version to be more interesting since it was published right after the market crash of 1987. The interviews in the book cover several categories including equities, Forex, bonds and commodities.
The weakness of this books lies in that non of the interviews reveal the techniques used by each trader to achieve their remarkable success ,but mainly focuses on the psychology of each trader and how they handled difficult situations. While I would have hoped that some trading techniques were revealed I will not hold that against the author, since highly successful traders are more likely to reveal their trading methods in a book they themselves write ,rather that an interview type book written by someone else. A most recent example is what Mark Minervini did by revealing some of his methods in his own book.
Interviews included are with Michael Markus, Bruce Kovner, William O'neill and David Ryan. I felt that the best interviews were those with Us Champion Marty Schwartz.
A very good read, especially the sections that deal with trader psyche before and after the crash of 1987.
For an interview type book it is an excellent motivational read that you can use to pick your self up when you experience some trading losses. In essence "If they did it so can I".

I own the whole Market Wizards Series by Schwager, and this book is notably just as good as the others.

There are a few interviews that stand out:
Druckenmiller - This guy is one of the best fund managers all-time, worked with Soros for a long period, some say shorting the pound was his idea. Not much of Drunkenmillar's speeches or interviews are published over the years.

Jeff Yass and Blair Hull: Those two articles are very good to read for option traders and give insight into spreading risk / interpreting information from the market. Today Susquehanna is one of the biggest option market makers in the equity space, one of the few floor trading groups still around. Same goes with Blair Hull (Hull Trading was equally successful, and later acquired by Goldman).

In Jack Schwager's book "New Market Wizards" the author lets the traders talk. His short questions give the traders the chance to elaborate on the issues which they think are important. Schwager encourages them to provide as many examples as possible to illustrate their message. Because of that every interview is different, and the book is fun to read and never gets boring.
E.g. one trader talks about his military service during the Vietnam war, and how this influenced his trading carreer. With others Schwager talks about NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) and hypnosis. Very interesting!
The most valuable thing for me, however, was that the "new market wizards" don't have any new rocket science indicators, but instead they use rather simple systems with a strict money management. I have read so many times before "Cut your losses" but only this book showed me that this rule is one of the keys to success for top traders because each and every one of them does it. There is no way around it, it is a must.
Another "new market wizard" points out that he is only profitable because he has excellent execution prices and low transaction fees, and therefore he fears that the average trader with higher transaction fees cannot be profitable. That was an eye-opener!
But the book also shows that there are traders who consistently beat the market for one to two decades in a row (not just Warren Buffett). So the market is not a "random walk".
All traders interviewed say that there is not the perfect universal trading system, but that every trader has to be comfortable with his or her system. Hence they advise against buying a ready-made system.
Schwager gives a short introduction on each trader, and nicely summarizes the main findings after each interview. At the end of the book, he summarizes the 42 rules that are common to most traders interviewed.
The only thing that could improve this book is an update. All the interviews are as of mid 1991. So the "new market wizards" talk about the crash in 1987 or the bear market in 1974. It would be interesting how these traders fared in the bursting of the dot.com bubble (2000) and the housing bubble/subprime bubble (2007 and counting).
You can start by reading this second book from Schwager's series, as it is not based on the first book ("Market Wizards"), but rather stands on its own. However, I enjoyed this book so much, that I am giving it 5 stars, and that I will soon read the first book as well.

I read this book ... I was thoroughly impressed.
I had read Schwager Technical books on trading in the past. And although I liked them, I found them to be quite tedious. With his Market Wizards series I was thoroughly impressed. You read the real life accounts of the top traders in the world and all you can say to yourself is I can do it too.
In no way does Schwager's voice interfere with the wisdom and message that these top traders try to get across. This is one of the most inspirational financial books of the decade, solely because it doesn't try to inspire, it simply gives the average trader a glimpse of what others call the impossible, beating the market, and the hope that you may be in the next edition.

Some readers comment that "The new" is not as good as the old. I strongly disagree with that. Schwager had tried to get the rest of the best in the market at the time to be interviewed and written about, like Vic Sperando, Stanley Druckenmiller, Richard Driehaus and some other big names. The problem is: the "stars" in the first book are just too bright, amongst all else, Paul Tudor Jones and Richard Dennis. Perhaps Schwager should have got Soros to meet the market expectation. BTW, two more tips: First, buy and read the Market Wizards before this. Second, dont get too carried away by the rosy pictures posed by these top traders and dont copy a bit from each of them. Know yourself and develop the trading strategy that fits you most unless you want to be those footstool of these wizards.

What is this book?
Jack D. Schwager interviewed some of the best traders in 1992 and compiled edited transcripts in this compelling book.
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Who is interviewed?
From the currency market: Bill Lipschutz .
In Futures: Randy McKay, William Eckhardt, The Turtles, Monroe Trout and Al Weiss.
Various market times and fund managers: Stanley Druckenmiller, Richard Driehaus, Gil Blake and Victor Sperandeo.
Traders who play several markets: Tom Basso and Linda Bradford Raschke
"The Money Machines" such as: CRT (Chicago Research and Trading), Mark Ritchie, Joe Ritchie, Blair Hull and Jeff Yass.
Psyschology: Zen and the art of trading (person didn't want his name mentioned), Charles Faulkner, Robert Krausz.
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I didn't recognize many of those names, probably because of these reasons:
* The book was written in 1992.
* I'm not into really into trading.
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Nevertheless I think the book is a great learning experience. You won't learn how to trade from this book but it gives you insight into the trader's psyche. I like learning about people who have been successful, (think Leader's & Success page, of IBD) since I feel it motivates me to learn more and work harder towards reaching my goals.
My favorite chapter in this book is entitled "Closing Bell" and it is a recap of all lots of trading advice mentioned over and over by these trading experts. I feel reviewing this chapter over and over is worth the price of the book.
Reed Floren

Through a series of interviews, Jack Schwager introduces the readers to traders he deems to be Market Wizards. He talks to people trading in different markets, employing different methodologies, and exhibiting different strengths and weaknesses. In spite of the differences, Schwager identifies some commonalities. Schwager sums up the book by offering his takeaways for being a successful trader. Some of them are quite obvious (e.g. have a passion for trading and examine your reasons for trading, have an edge) while other are more subtle (e.g. match your trading style with your personality, have a method).
Having attended a lecture given by him, Schwager will be first to tell you how he had to modify his trading style and methodology to a quantitatively-driven one. Before the change, he felt that he lacked the discipline to exit his positions subjectively.

These books (I am including its predecessor book The Market Wizards) are two of the best books on trading ever. No other book does so much to put the reader into the mind of a trader. To me, the most amazing thing about the traders interviewed was the multiplicity of techniques; one ignores technicals, another lives and dies solely on technical analysis; some trade on the floor, others from the comfort of their home. If you want to become a great trader, red and re-read and re-read these two books!

I read the books backwards - New Market Wizards first and then Market Wizards. I liked them both. To me it was like trading food. Here is a group of rather normal people who have mastered the art of making money. The books fed my appetite for trading knowledge and developed my willpower to trade.

These are a great read - I will, no doubt, probably read these often just to get the mental boost that they offer. Highly recommended!

A great read for those daring souls considering the life of a trader. The traders interviewed all provide valuable lessons that could have saved me thousands of dollars (or more) if I had only read this book sooner. It also puts things in perspective when you read how much timeand effort these guys put into their work to become the best. Very enlightening, although I found the book to get a bit dry in the middle.

Plenty of role models here again in his "new" book. Top traders interviewed. Why are they successful? What makes a good trader good? Why do traders fail? Are successful traders trend followers or fundamentalists? Excellent coverage of traders in all markets. If you want to learn what works in trading, then read this book. If you want to find out if you have what it takes to be a successful trader, then read this book. You will also want to read, "Trend Following: How Great Traders Make Millions In Up Or Down Markets".

This one and the previous MW are both very interesting indeed! I learned a lot from them. This one is slightly earier for me to read than MW. The summary of this one is also much more substantial. Some people may feel the section about NLP and psychology have not relation with trading. But I think they are still quite helpful. Both of them deserve 5 stars!

Insightful interviews with the greatest traders & investors of our time. This one is much better than the Money Masters books. Market Wizards taught me that success in trading was more than just luck, as the efficient market people would say and my finance classes at Brown taught. There is skill, education, and a level of learned maturity involved.
This is another book I re-read constantly to get inspiration and tips to succeed as an investor. I like this one better than the first book, since it's more applicable to today's markets.

The New Market Wizards is all too predictable right from the start. It follows the same format, ask the same questions, and therefore it make it too similar to the first book "The Market Wizards".
While it is still a good read, but I would recommend readers to buy the first book, rather than the sequel.

Cant think of much that Schwager could possible improve on;

except writing a 4 th book & include Carl Ichan.

Easy to write helpful one liners from each trader but dont have room; 1] Mark Ritchie ''Do your own research''

2]''Amazing meticulous precision''Gill Blake's nursery teacher noted.

3]William Eckhardt ''We need BLUNT statistical instruments''

May pay to ponder the meaning of ''blunt''. i

It helped me .

Continuing in his series of interviews with yet more top traders, Jack Schwager is providing even more excellent insights. Again I recommend reading this book multiple times, writing your own notes, and formulating a trading plan of your own rather than using the 'cheat's' summary at the end of the book in the 'Closing Bell' chapter.

Schwager has done an excellent job of following his first book Market Wizards.

Any trader will find the book interesting, informative and motivating. The author interviews traders with different trading styles, using different methodologies in diffent markets. If you are looking for a book that gives you an inside look about what is truly possible in trading the markets for yourself, this is it.

The only thing I would warn people about with this book is that you have to be interested in trading or it won't be for you.

This book is great for getting motivated about trading. Very hard to put down, a joy to read. I had to go and order Jack Schwager older book Market Wizards once I got done reading New Market Wizards. May be the best book I have ever read about trading and I have a big library.
A must have!
[...]

Schwager's interviews are good. Where can you have chance to see how these top guns trade? obviously, some of them were more reserved and didn't give up much useful information. but remember these people don't have to share anything. i am glad Schwager took the pain to finish this project!

This book is the real deal...Many "experts" write books and tell you how to trade markets...What if you could sit side by side the worlds greatest traders and learn from them...

Jack Schwager's "Wizards" Series offer just that...the ability to get inside the thought process of the most successful traders in the world...

Serious traders must read this book.

For entertainment, reading about famous traders of the past; their great trades; their bad trades; their childhood quirks that made them into traders, this book is fun reading.

If you want to learn how to become a disciplined trader, then these famous traders take it in turn to talk about style of entry, risk management, time frames etc etc blah blah blah which you already know about from the thousands of "how to" trading books and this ain't the place for anything new there.

If you think these guys are going to give you the holy grail to become a market wizard by reading this book then dream on. Ed Seykota's stand out rule about knowing the rules and knowing when to break them sums it all up. These guys know all the "rules" but broke their rules at their "right time" and went for the jugular. They went for the home run a number of times and won. Noone can do hundreds and thousands of percentage gains year in year out under strict rule based discplinary trading, so the sad fact is that if you don't often become an undisciplined "pig" then you don't become a "market wizard" hitting astronomical percentage point gains. Looking at it another way, if these guys have the holy grail then a lot of these same people should be in the 2004 Fortune Magazine list of billionaires. They went for the jugular, made their money and got out fast.

There were thousands of big time traders during the 80's and 90's who were consistent, disciplined traders, went for the juglar but they lost. The ones who survived have been interviewed by Jack Schwager. Do you see Victor Niedehoffer interviewed by Jack? Are we all being fooled by randomness?

The best "trader" of them all is the one who had the best risk to reward ratio and has managed to avoid the efficiencies of the markets...good on you Jack....

This book is just like the first book "Market Wizards" but more of the great traders. Not a whole lot of information on how to, but more of an example of what others have done. Very enjoyable to read, I couldn't put it down.

If you haven't read "Market Wizards" (the first book), go ahead and get that first. The caliber of traders is not as impressive, and there is very little new information to be learned. Still a good book nonetheless.

"Adopting a formula that limited both my profits and drawdowns by notching back the number of contracts traded in each market ... the key is that the number of contracts traded fluctuates in accordance with each market's volatility."
Tom Basso
How long is it going to take me to learn this one?

That's not necessarily true, the original ties "The New...". These books are awesome, they're the closest thing one can get to actually sitting for lunch with these traders. Philosophy is the key to trading success, and these two books are full of insights. Schwager really stumbled onto something.

Wisdom comes mainly by experience and not theoretical concepts of trading rules. The author is a well known industry expert. He extensively interviews extremely successful traders about their life, methods and most memorable experiences in their careers. Each conversation is unique in it's own way and it's a great learning curve if you can absorb it. It is more of a reference book than a casual read if you are a curious/novice/intermediate trader looking to develop your skills and explore your potential weaknesses. There is a lot of discussion about hedging, handling losses, entry/exit of positions, position sizing and different trading styles and philosophies. You could also keenly observe how they reacted to economic events and went about with their trading executions.

What this book is not: No technical analysis rules, No rules engraved in stone that there is a particular way in which you should trade and certainly no fatherly advice on stocks.

A must read for all traders and fund managers.

Some of the richest and most succesfull traders were not presented in this book. Toby Crabel- for example is not listed here and the guy according to the hedge fund industry is the best money manager around.I read couple of his articles on Ebay and seriously he is gives much more detail than any of the Market Wizards.

I really liked this series of books. It is interviews with succesful trades on their successes and failures as traders and their basic philosophies to trading. I definitely recommend reading if you are into trading. Not only does it give you insight, but it will also lead you on to other books about trading that you will also be interested in.