Review of Jack D. Schwager's Market Wizards

Another one of my recommended books is Jack D. Schwager's Market Wizards. This book is a collection of interviews with some of the worlds best traders and money managers. The book focuses more on the stories of the traders and their philosophies, and less on techniques.

I found a few things in this book that I think should be noted. First, I found it very interesting how many of these great traders did really dumb things when they first started out. One of the first interviewees had never even engaged in the simple buying or selling of any type of security before he wiped his account out in the matter of weeks. He then went on to round up more capital and eventually became very successful. There were a lot of simple errors they made that I am glad I did not have to learn the hard way. This book can give you a gauge of how successful you have been relative to these great traders at the same point in their career.

There is one topic that is stressed over and over again by all the traders, and that is money management. Many traders had a "life changing" experience where they realized they were taking on too much risk, and all of them have attributed a large part of their success to their money management. Some have hard set rules such as never risking more than 1% of their capital, while others have shut points so they can only lose so much in any one month. Whatever their system is, the important thing is that they all feel it is an essential part of their success.

Just like Stan Weinstein's book, I've included a link to Amazon on my main page if you are thinking about purchasing the book. The link is on the right hand side about half way down the page. I would again urge you to read other peoples reviews, because they are probably better than mine. This book is cheap too, you can buy a used version for under $8.00. I think you'll find that this is one book that is both informative and interesting and will motivate you to be a better trader.