This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher speaking with Jack Schwager about the latest book in his Market Wizards series, Unknown Market Wizards - The Best Traders You’ve Never Heard Of.
Prior to the chat with Schwager, the hosts discuss some of the busy news flow as we begin the last full trading week of a long 2020. Among the subjects: The beginning of vaccine distribution in the U.S. as Covid-19 cases (and shutdowns) shoot higher, the continued lack of any stimulus bill out of Washington, the red-hot IPO market, the remarkable comeback in Disney (DIS).
And of that IPO market, Task checked in with occasional Alpha Trader guest Eddy Elfenbein, who says the animal spirits are making him bullish. He notes that a key difference between this year’s IPO gold rush and that of 1999 is that 2020’s batch of newcomers are mature companies with real revenue and even (on occasion) real profits. In 1999, metrics like price-to-sales fell out of flavor to be replaced with things like price-per-click.
Beginning with the publishing of Market Wizards in 1989 and continuing with the new Unknown Market Wizards, Jack Schwager has been taking financial markets junkies inside the minds of some of the most successful traders to ever roam the pits in Chicago, the trading floors in New York and London, the halls of powerful hedge funds, and (today) likely nothing more than a WiFi-connected computer from pretty much anywhere on the planet.
Maybe the most important common trait running through each of Schwager’s books: A deep respect for risk management to the point where most of the traders believe managing the downside is more important than their actual trading methodology. Though markets have changed dramatically over the thirty years, what’s necessary for success in trading really hasn’t, he notes.
Speaking of dramatic change, Schwager spends some time discussing one of the subjects of Unknown Market Wizards. Using “neither fundamental nor technical analysis,” Chris Camillo has turned a modest stake into millions of dollars. How so? By creative use of social media, Camillo has been able to spot “anomalies” in which stock price action isn’t reflective of the trends he’s seeing. By stepping into some of these situations, Camillo has been able to turn great profits.
There’s plenty more, including more common traits across great traders, Schwager’s own evolving trading style, and his involvement with FundSeeder, a platform for finding and providing funding for top trading talent.

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