Excess Returns · Thursday, July 16, 2026
Jack Schwager reveals that he discovers many elite traders through word-of-mouth referrals from other traders he has profiled. He also observes that the trading environment has changed significantly, with the rise of proprietary trading firms and an increased prevalence of day trading, which was rare in earlier "Market Wizards" books.
“So I find them. You know, something word of mouth in some cases. And often, uh, all the time, one of the questions I usually ask people I interview is, hey, who do you know who should be in this book?”
“You know, uh, and somebody like Christian Koulomaz, uh, I'd seen him on, uh, on, uh, Twitter and, uh, I knew he had done well and I got his records and all that, but he also seemed a very sharing guy. So, uh, so I got him, I knew of him, you know, and, and he was, uh, so, uh, so, you know, there were various, various ways of finding people.”
“You know, part of it, it also is is talking about environment. If you go back to the first market wizards book, you didn't have prop, you didn't have prop trading firms. Uh, not the way you do today.”
“And, uh, and those tend to be, uh, often focused on very short-term day trading. In fact, uh, in in few, few interviews in this book that traders came through that environment, the firm actively discourages, uh, anything beyond day trading.”
“And, uh, in this book, there were quite a few.”