Hedge Fund Market Wizards

quantie · Post by **quantie** » Fri Jun 29, 2012 5:18 am

SCHWAGER does Thorp & Dalio very promising adding to my beach list.

Nonius · Post by **Nonius** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 11:20 pm

i like this review....

“This book is destined to be a classic just like the others by Jack. But the latest goes one step further, these traders aren't just at the top of their game, they have defined it. What can I say? This book was so good it almost made me want to get back into the game again!”

—Paul W****tt, mathematician and ex-hedge fund manager

er, what ex hedge fund would that be?

Strange · Post by **Strange** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 11:49 pm

Caissa, with Jon Kinlay - they made a lot of money in early 2000s and subsequently blew up. Like most "high concept" hedge funds, they were selling risk premium.

Praetorian · Post by **Praetorian** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 11:57 pm

Thanks quantie for bringing this up. I've read a good part of the book over the weekend and like it very much. The Thorp interview did not yield that much news, but there are lots of interesting interviews in the book with very different thought processes to generate trading ideas.

I especially like the "vague" interview style that triggers creativity for me. And it is very interesting to see how the trading environment evolves over time with each new book from Schwager.

quantie · Post by **quantie** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 5:52 pm

yeah agree with you Praetorian- this book is to be savoured. I went back to Market Wizards recently and had a whole new appreciation for some of the discussion.

lim_nick · Post by **lim_nick** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 4:35 am

I'm most of the way through this and am glad for the recommendation. Always interesting to read someone being vague and think 'I know exactly what he's trying to avoid saying.'

Are the other Market Wizards books as good as this one?

amateur · Post by **amateur** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 4:47 am

Finished it recently, and I am not a big fan of conclusions at the end of each part. Otherwise, good questions with some insightful answers.

Regarding Thorpe, same as Praetorian, nothing new, unfortunately...

MrMagoo · Post by **MrMagoo** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 5:32 am

I highly recommend all market wizards books by the author, including the older ones. Just search amazon or google it.

I also think Reminiscences of Stock Operator is mandatory reading (and fun as well).

eläin · Post by **eläin** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 7:41 am

This might be a stupid question but on page 353 Martin Taylor says "I will check who has been selling the stock."

What does this mean in practice?

Does he simply mean insiders? Because for institutional's and mutual funds the data seems quite old for example if one looks Goog from Yahoo http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=GOOG+Major+Holders most of the data is from March.. Some companies update this information on their webpage monthly but still.. monthly.

Any inside to this would be appreciated.

jslade · Post by **jslade** » Sat Jan 25, 2014 10:46 pm

This thread got me to read almost all of 'em last year. The first one was certainly the best one, probably followed by the last one. Generally good and inspiring stuff.

However, this year, I'm reading the one remaining: "Stock Market Wizards" and am finding it pretty bad. While I haven't gotten to the DE Shaw interview yet, there are a couple of actual frauds in this one (in one case, you could tell he was full of shit from reading the book), and one guy who ... got shot by his wife and caught for smuggling diamonds in Latin America.

http://insidecostarica.com/2013/01/16/murder-diamonds-and-intrigue-in-costa-rica-u-s-woman-accused-of-killing-wealthy-husband-claims-suicide/

I wonder if anybody has bothered doing a "where are they now" on Schwager's interview subjects. Quite a few blew up spectacularly (Richard Dennis in the first book). I consider having a stroke, then getting busted for diamond smuggling and subsequently shot in the noggin in Costa Rica to be a pretty spectacular blow up too. So is having your firm liquidated and being accused of pyramid schemes.

The ones that either stayed in and continued to do well (Paul Tudor Jones) or got out and got on with their lives (Shaw) seem to have more to offer than fruitcakes who ate a bullet in the noggin.