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Excess Returns · Thursday, July 16, 2026

Schwager Discusses Criteria for Elite Trader Profiles

Jack Schwager, author of the "Market Wizards" book series, explains his criteria for profiling traders. He looks for compelling stories and performance metrics, typically either turning a small amount of capital into a large sum or demonstrating exceptionally high risk-adjusted returns.

personJack Schwager

The tape

3 quotes
I'm ultimately looking for a story. You know, has to be a good story.
Jack Schwager
And, um, as far as the performance side, there are two elements that two possible roads to it. One, somebody takes a small amount of money and turns it into a lot.
Jack Schwager
And then you have people who have kind of crazy return risk numbers.
Jack Schwager
Heard on Excess Returns — “Jack Schwager on Timeless Lessons from Elite Traders, published Thursday, July 16, 2026. Heardvine summarizes and quotes with attribution and timestamps, and links to the original everywhere.
Transcribed via Gemini audio transcription · $0.06
Schwager Discusses Criteria for Elite Trader Profiles — Heardvine