Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I think the first two Market Wizards books are classics, I really like Schwager as a writer, and I really really really wanted this book to be as good. I resisted coming to the same conclusion as the other 2-or-3 star reviewers as long as I could, but you know what? Sadly, they're right. The first Market Wizards book is completely indispensable. The second, it's true, was not as good overall - but half of it was. This book isn't in the same league. The best I can call it is light entertainment, for those of us who find books about the markets entertaining. To Schwager's credit, his writing is consistently clear and readable. (To appreciate this better, take a look at the slapdash Market Wizards knockoff, "The Best: Conversations with Top Traders", which contains a few insights scattered amidst a great deal of repetition and incoherence.) But not only do most of the traders interviewed here not have nearly the track records of the original Market Wizards; they don't seem to have the same substance or depth either. There are no minds here of the calibre of an Ed Seykota or a Jim Rogers, just to name two. (I mean, of course, judging solely by these interviews). Not only that, but several display a distasteful absence of class. (I'm not talking about social class, I'm talking about that elusive quality of graciousness which makes a successful person seem deserving...) Nonetheless, I did enjoy reading several of the interviews, for example those with Fletcher and Galante.

Mr. Schwager apparently needs to keep churning out more "Market Wizards" books in order to pay for his swank Martha's Vineyard address. Other than a few nuggets of trading/investing strategy contained in a couple of the interviews, this book has virtually no value to the individual trader or investor.

The majority of the interviews are with fund managers who manage hundreds of millions or billions of dollars, and whose trading strategies and access to information and CFO's are not applicable to the individual. Many of the interviews are with individuals who practice arcane strategies involving financing packages or interest-rate hedges with corporations designed to essentially eliminate any market risk. These strategies are of absolutely no value to the individual trader/investor. In one interview, the person not only refused to discuss any of his trading strategies or techniques, but also refused to even discuss what markets he traded. This of course immediately begs the question of why this interview was included in the book.

The author could have easily found many stock traders who trade for their own account, and whose trading strategies would have been of significant interest to the average reader. He fails almost completely in this regard. What a waste.

Unlike the first two "Wizard" books, which were outstanding, this book is uninspired and a profound disappointment. Almost immediately after starting the book, I got the feeling that Jack Schwager wasn't terribly interested in writing it, but couldn't resist the temptation to cash in a final time by doing a dozen or so "quickie" interviews with traders.

The stock traders interviewed this time around are younger, cockier, and generally a lot less likeable than the futures traders in the old "Wizard" books. The most interesting chapter, and the only one on par with the original books' interviews, is with Mark Cook, who isn't really a stock trader, but is in fact a trader of S&P futures. Several of the chapters are almost unbearable to read, not because Schwager's writing is bad, but because the traders themselves are hugely pretentious (Michael Lauer) or plainly arrogant (Ahmet Okumus). Most of the interviewees would best be described as short-term investors, not traders, and a couple of them are exclusively involved in private equity financing (Fletcher, Guazzoni), which has nothing whatsoever to do with trading (filler, Jack?). If you think that you will be able to learn something about day to day trading from this book, then you will be sorely disappointed.

Lastly, there are practically none of the penetrating insights or revealing comments (except for the Cook interview) that made the first two "Wizard" books so educational and even inspirational. It's a shame that Schwager wrote this uninspired book and sullied the reputation that he built with his original "Wizard" books. He should have followed his own advice about "not getting greedy," and declined the publisher's advance in order to keep his position as an interesting writer intact.

This book seems like it was rushed to press. It's not nearly as in depth as the other two Market Wizard books. And the interviewees seem to suffer from "Survivoritis." They know they are being watched and read now and they guard their words so carefully as to make the interviews pretty much worthless.

I have read the first two Wizards again and again and this book is nowhere near their quality. Avoid!

...did anyone notice the Michael Lauer disappering act? He was featured in the original version, but not in the current version. It seems that between the time the original version was released and the current version came out he got himself in trouble with the SEC. A search of the web led me to the SEC's web site where it shows that Lauer has been charged with several violations of the law -- basically, it is alleged by the SEC that his hedge funds were scams.

Oops.

What is a bit disconcerting, though, is that there is no mention of anything related to Lauer in the new version. I'm not sure whose decision that was, but it seems disingenuous. As embarrassing as it may have been to feature an "alleged" crook as a "wizard," there are still lessons to be learned and there should have been some sort of followup -- not just sweeping it under the rug and hope no one notices.

I did.

Kind of ironic because I found the section on Lauer to be one of the most valuable for me (at the time).

That's why I gave it 2 stars. The rest of the book is good, but since he blew his credibility with me I've got to wonder how much of it is real.

While I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to stock market investors, I didn't think it had the same depth and level of insight as Schwager's first two Market Wizards books, which I consider two of the most valuable volumes in my investment library. There were a few interviews that I liked, though, such as the one with Ahmet Okumus, the Turkish immigrant who buys quality stocks he thinks have been punished too much and will eventually turnaround. Furthermore, he sells puts on them when he thinks they're still overvalued for the options income, and if the stock declines to that level, he's actually delighted to have the stock "put" back to him since he really wanted to own the stock at that price anyway. This means he does exhaustive fundamental research and must be very accurate and confident in and of his valuation of the company for this to work, and his historical returns show he can make this work, too, as it significantly added to his overall performance. I thought that was an interesting strategy and an example of someone with a niche that they're able to exploit. I still found most of the other interviews worthwhile, though, and I would recommend this book to stock market investors since there is a lot of good advice about the pitfalls of investing there, too.

After reading most of the reviews I was not expecting this book to be as good as his first two books. However, after reading it and going back to take notes of what I highlighted I have to admit that I enjoyed this book just as much as the first two. Perhaps because the first two were geared to the futures market and the new book is all stocks.

I also agree with some of the other reviews about some of the interviews being weak. Although I am a growth/momentum trader I was really looking forward to the interview with Mark Minervini but after reading it I was very disappointed. If his account size is the half the size of his ego then he would be the richest man in the world. I am automatically suspicious of someone who has a goal of being interviewed as a "market wizard". Although I did write a few notes from his interview I noticed that he really didn't have anything new to say that he didn't get out of a book like How to Trade in Stocks or How to Make Money in Stocks. He almost quoted these books to the letter. He also didn't give any background of how he got started trading, how he trades, or his "secrets". (for all you new traders out there are no secrets just hard work) I am sure his "secrets" are nothing more than patterns he read in a book. I am not expecting to reveal everything you do but why even include him in the book if he is such a difficult person to talk to. After reading his interview I decided to check out his website and I had to laugh at the returns he has on it. From 1995-1999 he has averaged a 220% compounded annual return. While this is a great number it also happens to be the greatest bull market in history during that time. I started trading in 1998 and in 98 and 1999 I had triple digit returns. So if someone just starting out can make those type of returns what makes him so special? What would really be interesting is to see how he has done since spring 2000 to the present but that is conveintely left off his site.

There were some other interviews worth reading like Mark Cook and Stuart Walton. Both of whom know there are no "secrets" to trading. Also the interview with the pure short seller was interesting. She said that she didn't like to trade on the long side because making money didn't seem like work to her but selling short in a bull market takes a lot of work. I kept asking myself during the interview if because she is a woman she feels she needs to "work" at her job in order to be respected. From my point of view she seems like she needs to prove something to somebody or mayber to herself.

Although some of the interviews could have been deleted this is a good book especially if you trade stocks you can relate to stories better than the first two books. I agree with one of the other reviewers I would like to see a follow up on the market wizards of all three books to see how they have done and what has or hasn't changed.

This book made for interesting and inspirational reading, but clearly lacked the substance of the first two. Several of the traders interviewed used "buy weakness" strategies, but their trading histories are only composed of bull market conditions. A far cry from the people in the first two books who had seen and survived numerous cycles of bull and bear markets.

I have to say that this is indeed the worst of the Market Wizard books. I got the feeling that it was written as a marketing tool for Mr. Schwaeger's Market Wizard Fund of funds.

One interview that I found particularly annoying was Stephen Lescarbeau, who only agreed to the interview because of Gil Blake's interview in MW II. Unlike Mr. Blake, he revealed nothing about his methodology, only the inspiration for it. Further, I see from Mr. Lescarbeau's review of the book, he was surprised by the information divulged by the other wizards. He should have done likewise or not have been included in the book.

I have to agree with some of the reviews here. The "wizards" in this book seem very worried about giving any type of information regarding their techniques. Now, I am not looking for easylanguage code for each of their systems, but they divulge little compared to the traders in the first book.

Also, how about interviewing some individual traders as well.

It's too bad this isn't a better book. I was really happy when I found it and couldn't wait to read it.