SI113: The Unknown Market Wizards ft. Jack Schwager

Today, we welcome legendary author Jack Schwager onto the show to discuss his new book ‘Unknown Market Wizards’ and a range of topics such as: what timeframe makes the most successful trader, how the best traders seem to have uncorrelated returns to the overall stock market, why elite traders can often have terrible starts to their careers, how embracing risk management can take returns to a much higher level, what investors should look for in a money manger, mean-reversion versus momentum trading, and a lot more.

-----

50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HERE

-----

Follow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or via the TTU website.

IT’s TRUE ? – most CIO’s read 50+ books each year – get your FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here.

And you can get a free copy of my latest book “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” here.

Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.

Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com

And please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest Rating & Review on iTunes or Spotify so more people can discover the podcast.

Episode TimeStamps:

00:00 – Intro

01:27 – Macro recap from Niels

02:17 – Weekly review of performance

05:01 – Niels: Where do systematic traders tend to rank in your book, compared to discretionary traders? What is the minimum length of track record you looked at, to be considered for inclusion in your book?

10:50 – Moritz: To what extent did mean reversion traders feature in your book, versus momentum-orientated traders?

16:47 – Niels: How much do you think luck played a part in the results of the traders in your new book?

23:01 – Moritz: When you were interviewing the traders in your book, did you, at any time, get the feeling that there were tailwinds, outside of their control, that helped their strategies?

27:41 – Niels: Some of the traders in your book blew up their accounts a few times, so can they still be called ‘wizards’ of the market?

34:37 – Moritz: There seems to be opposing views on diversification in your book. What are your thoughts on this?

39:07 – Niels: How do you think about the slight contradiction of discretionary traders being unemotional and not falling in love with their opinions?

41:26 – Moritz: Do you think it’s possible to train random people to be great traders, as in the Turtle Traders, or do you need to be born with certain skills?

45:44 – Niels: Do you believe that earlier market wizards had a different set of skills today’s market wizards?

53:35 – Niels: How do we inform investors to avoid ‘straight-line’ equity returns and embrace inconsistency a little more?

59:10 – Moritz: To what extent can you separate long-term traders & short-term traders in the Unknown Market Wizards book ?

01:02:13 – Niels: Which statistics would you pay most attention to if you had to build a system?

01:06:13 – Niels: If you were an investor, and you had to find a manager, and you could only ask them one question, what would it be?

01:07:43 – Benchmark performance update

Copyright © 2025 – CMC AG – All Rights Reserved

----

PLUS: Whenever you're ready... here are 3 ways I can help you in your investment Journey:

1. eBooks that cover key topics that you need to know about

In my eBooks, I put together some key discoveries and things I have learnt during the more than 3 decades I have worked in the Trend Following industry, which I hope you will find useful. Click Here

2. Daily Trend Barometer and Market Score

One of the things I’m really proud of, is the fact that I have managed to published the Trend Barometer and Market Score each day for more than a decade...as these tools are really good at describing the environment for trend following managers as well as giving insights into the general positioning of a trend following strategy! Click Here

3. Other Resources that can help you

And if you are hungry for more useful resources from the trend following world...check out some precious resources that I have found over the years to be really valuable. Click Here

Privacy Policy

Disclaimer