5/31/2026 - Imagine that people become really interested in dating. A host of dating services spring up, experts offer their services on successful dating, and people spend considerable money on videos and courses to date more people, find better dates, enjoy dates more, etc. They don't do any work on themselves to become better romantic partners, so they get lots of dates, but never achieve successful long-term marriages.
Lots of people want to trade. They seek out courses and videos and advice on trading and they find lots of opportunities for trades, but they don't invest. They don't do any work on themselves to become better investors in the best opportunities, so they get lots of trades, but cultivate no long-term wealth.
The people I work with who have achieved mind-boggling returns this year: 1) don't trade in and out; 2) don't get their information from social media; 3) don't try to be trading gurus. They have made millions and millions of dollars thus far in the year tracking themes that institutions are beginning to discover and then riding those themes as significant investments.
Working on dating is fun. It's not what brings the fulfillment of long-term relationships.
Working at different jobs is stimulating. It's not what brings the success of a long-term career.
In all areas of life, the greatest returns come from well thought out, meaningful investments and the ability to commit to those.
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5/29/2026 - One thing I'll discuss in the upcoming book is the importance of breadth of thinking. Yes, deep thought is important: going into depth to understand an economic report, analyzing price action at multiple time frames, etc. The very successful market participants I've worked with have also displayed an amazing breadth of thinking. They won't just look at their market; they'll analyze related markets and pick up advance signals. They won't just trade agricultural commodities; they'll go on crop tours and talk with the farmers who see growing conditions first hand. They won't just read a research report; they'll contact the author with important questions. Deeper, deeper: they'll uncover what others fail to see. They make more connections in the data because they unearth more data.
Among day traders, breadth of thought is achieved through the collaboration of teamwork and especially where each team member looks at different things. I recently worked with a team where a member picked up on strength in the South Korean market, which led to an exploration of semiconductor stocks, and a phenomenal trading opportunity. The new book will track an actual successful team in real time and illustrate how they operate and the opportunities they uncover. It will be an opportunity to learn from people managing hundreds of millions of dollars and see what they do and how they do it.
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5/28/2026 - The upcoming book will feature an inside look at a group of professional traders and how they find opportunity, balance their risk taking, control risk, and hang in there for the few really large moves that make up a big part of their profitability. The book will track their day to day activities and performance and illustrate how they generate ideas and learn from their experience.
It is noteworthy that the group meets each week and, prior to each meeting, write up their ideas, summarize their performance, and highlight lessons learned. This is especially valuable in that it highlights developing trends and opportunities. Having a group of people each keeping their eyes on opportunity and sharing with each other greatly enriches performance and also keeps everyone in an opportunity mindset. Equally valuable is learning from everyone else's successes and mistakes, week after week. That cements learning and expands the lessons learned.
Another group that I work with conducts an online chat throughout the day, documenting what's moving, breaking news, and other observations. The chat is saved and printed out and forms the backbone for the daily review process. Once again, the interaction becomes a mechanism for learning and development. I highly recommend reading the interview with David Ryan in the first Market Wizards book. His journal keeping--and the intensity of his review--are eye-opening. Good traders learn; great traders immerse themselves in learning.
Expertise is a commitment, not a 9-5 job.
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5/27/2026 - When you read through the interviews in the Market Wizards texts, you come across something noteworthy: The most successful traders/investors have a highly elaborated view of what is and isn't opportunity. No one is just trading a news release or a chart pattern. Rather, they have a clear idea of what opportunity is, how it sets up, and how to get involved. We see this, for example, in William O'Neil's interview where he talks about riding growth stocks. The companies he gets involved in need to have strong earnings, strong relative performance, and a good risk/reward opportunity to ride the trend. One of the traders featured in the most recent Market Wizards book, Kenny Sharkness ("Shark"), couldn't be more different in his trading approach. But, true to the SMB approach to trading, he looks for stocks "in play" that are setting up for strong short-term moves. Those criteria are elaborated in playbooks and form the backbone of what makes for short-term opportunity.
There couldn't be more different approaches to markets than the growth investment approach of O'Neil and the very active trading of multiple stocks by Shark. The common element is a detailed approach to trading, a clear view of what constitutes opportunity, and an ability to tolerate volatility on the way to significant gains.
When I learned how to be a therapist in graduate school, I benefited from having multiple teachers/mentors. Eventually, I was able to synthesize their approaches and develop my own view of how to help people change. You know you have your own distinctive approach when you begin to elaborate a unique philosophy of opportunity and find methods that truly speak to you.
The greatest risk for developing traders is that they are too eager to trade and not absorbed in learning markets. What you see uniquely in markets will generate your unique returns.
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5/26/2026 - A major assumption that developing traders make is that trading success is the result of finding the right trading method. They scour markets for trading signals and chart patterns, hoping to find the secret to success. What we see in the Market Wizards books, however, is that the trading greats trade different markets, different time frames, and different methods. They develop their own approach to trading that blends the pursuit of gain and the management of loss, but there is no single formula for success.
What I've come to respect is that a major part of trading success is finding and trading the right opportunities. A trader can have flawless discipline and deep insight, but if the market they're trading isn't moving, they're not likely to make much money.
A powerful example of this is the book The Lifecycle Trade by Eve Boboch, Kathy Donnelly, Eric Krull, and Kurt Daill. The book identifies how to find "super growth" stocks, including IPOs. The goal is to find big winners early in their moves and then implement the discipline and risk/reward management to ride the often volatile moves higher. What makes these traders successful is insight into the developing opportunity and the ability to stick with the vision of growth. Clearly, this approach to trading is relevant to the current period, in which the pursuit of AI-related themes has been a major area of opportunity.
This is yet another way in which successful trading is a function of entrepreneurialism. The entrepreneur sees opportunity in the marketplace and doggedly but flexibly pursues it. The great trader finds opportunity in the same way and builds a business around their unique vision.
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5/25/2026 - My first part of writing the new book will be to review every one of the Market Wizards books and figure out the common themes and threads that connect the top traders. Then I will read books from many of these top performers to get a more detailed look at what makes them tick. The idea is that we are most likely to develop our own greatness if we study and emulate those who have achieved great things.
One of the earliest observations from Jack Schwager is that what connects the top performers is not what and how they trade. Some are fundamentally oriented portfolio managers; some are technical traders. Some operate in the stock market; others are involved in fixed income or commodities. All of them operate with a clear edge in markets, but all have their own edges.
What is clear is that all of them live and breathe markets. They are just as engaged outside of trading hours as while they're glued to screens. They follow overseas markets; they talk with traders they respect; they read research reports; they review their trading: they are always immersed. Some might call this a passion for trading, but that misses the point. They have a passion for understanding and mastering markets--and they sustain that passion even when they are not trading.
Day after day of the immersion in markets feeds a superior capacity for pattern recognition. The best traders see more in markets because they've seen more markets! It's not just the amount of time they spend in front of screens and processing market information; it's the intensity of their focus that enables them to internalize so much more from their market time.
Greatness emerges from passion.
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One of my eye-opening observations is that great traders are genuinely excited about the ideas and themes that they uncover through their research. Whether they are trading an individual company's stock, the entire stock market, or fresh developments in a particular country or region, they develop a vision of the future and become energized by that vision. They are not just trading chart patterns or signals or directional hunches. They see a bigger picture. Even when the trading is quite detailed and technical, there is an underlying idea that defines the trader's perspective. And they are excited about that idea.
This fits with the idea that successful money managers and traders treat their work as an entrepreneurial venture. They develop a vision regarding opportunity and they are consumed by the pursuit of that vision. And, yes, they reach some dead ends and disappointing avenues, but often they discover their beautiful paths by getting lost in the weeds of research, discussion, and review. The energy level is not just about making money, because it is sustained even when trades aren't being placed. The energy level of the great trader is not so different from the energy level of the research scientist or the businessperson pursuing a new venture. It's about vision and discovery and bringing something new to life. When you find your path in life--whether it's in your career, in markets, or in relationships--your efforts bring you energy because you are fueled by inspiration.