The best books about traders

Why am I passionate about this?

I am the author of a dozen books about trading, including the iconic Market Wizards series in which I interviewed many of the world’s best traders during the past thirty-plus years. My books have been translated into over 20 languages and cumulatively have sold millions of copies worldwide. My career also includes over 20 years as a research director for some of Wall Street’s leading firms, 10 years as a partner in a hedge fund advisory firm, and most recently the co-founder of a fintech startup (fundseeder.com).


I wrote...

Unknown Market Wizards: The Best Traders You've Never Heard Of

By Jack D. Schwager,

Book cover of Unknown Market Wizards: The Best Traders You've Never Heard Of

What is my book about?

Unknown Market Wizards continues in the three-decade tradition of the hugely popular Market Wizards series, interviewing exceptionally successful traders to learn how they achieved their extraordinary performance results. The twist in Unknown Market Wizards is that the featured traders are individuals trading their own accounts. They are unknown to the investment world. Despite their anonymity, these traders have achieved performance records that rival, if not surpass, the best professional managers.

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Liar's Poker

Jack D. Schwager Why did I love this book?

Lewis is a phenomenal writer. Anything he has written can be assumed to be a great read. Liar’s Poker is Lewis’s account of his experiences as a trainee and bond salesman at Solomon Brothers in the 1980s—A very entertaining and humor-filled narrative.

By Michael Lewis,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked Liar's Poker as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Michael Lewis was fresh out of Princeton and the London School of Economics when he landed a job at Salomon Brothers, one of Wall Street's premier investment firms. During the next three years, Lewis rose from callow trainee to bond salesman, raking in millions for the firm and cashing in on a modern-day gold rush. Liar's Poker is the culmination of those heady, frenzied years-a behind-the-scenes look at a unique and turbulent time in American business. From the frat-boy camaraderie of the forty-first-floor trading room to the killer instinct that made ambitious young men gamble everything on a high-stakes game…


Book cover of The Big Short

Jack D. Schwager Why did I love this book?

Lewis’s account of the traders who got it right in 2008 is a magnificent achievement in that he somehow manages to take highly complex and esoteric material and make it both comprehensible to the lay reader and wildly entertaining. To give credit where due, I found one of my interview subjects for Hedge Fund Market Wizards (Jamie Mai) by reading this book.

By Michael Lewis,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked The Big Short as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The real story of the crash began in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn't shine and the SEC doesn't dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower- and middle-class Americans who can't pay their debts. The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope and fear; in any case, they weren't talking.

Michael Lewis creates a fresh, character-driven narrative brimming with indignation and dark humor, a fitting sequel to his #1 bestseller Liar's Poker. Out of a…


Book cover of When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management

Jack D. Schwager Why did I love this book?

The true story behind the rise and fall of Long Term Capital Management. Most people think it was simply about excess leverage. When you read Lowenstein’s account, you will see that there was a lot more to it than that. As a financial author, I admire authors who can take esoteric financial subject material and transform it into a comprehensible and entertaining narrative. In this respect, this book is similar to Michel Lewis’s The Big Short.

By Roger Lowenstein,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked When Genius Failed as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Picking up where Liar's Poker left off (literally, in the bond dealer's desks of Salomon Brothers) the story of Long-Term Capital Management is of a group of elite investors who believed they could beat the market and, like alchemists, create limitless wealth for themselves and their partners.

Founded by John Meriweather, a notoriously confident bond dealer, along with two Nobel prize winners and a floor of Wall Street's brightest and best, Long-Term Captial Management was from the beginning hailed as a new gold standard in investing. It was to be the hedge fund to end all other hedge funds: a…


Book cover of More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite

Jack D. Schwager Why did I love this book?

Personally, I am not crazy about the title, but this book is an excellent account of the history of hedge funds. The book is thoroughly researched, very well written, and accurate based on my experience in writing about the same subject matter.

By Sebastian Mallaby,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked More Money Than God as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The first book of its kind: a fascinating and entertaining examination of hedge funds today Shortlisted for the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award 'An enormously satisfying book: a gripping chronicle of the cutting edge of the financial markets and a fascinating perspective on what was going on in these shadowy institutions as the crash hit' Observer Wealthy, powerful, and potentially dangerous, hedge-find managers have emerged as the stars of twenty-first century capitalism. Based on unprecedented access to the industry, More Money Than God provides the first authoritative history of hedge funds. This is the inside story…


Book cover of What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars

Jack D. Schwager Why did I love this book?

A book I liked enough to agree to write the foreword. To quote from my own foreword, “There is more to be learned from Jim Paul’s true story of failure than from a stack of books promising to reveal the secret formula for success. Not only that, What I Learned Losing A Million Dollars is a much more entertaining read.”

By Jim Paul, Brendan Moynihan,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Jim Paul's meteoric rise took him from a small town in Northern Kentucky to governor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, yet he lost it all-his fortune, his reputation, and his job-in one fatal attack of excessive economic hubris. In this honest, frank analysis, Paul and Brendan Moynihan revisit the events that led to Paul's disastrous decision and examine the psychological factors behind bad financial practices in several economic sectors. This book-winner of a 2014 Axiom Business Book award gold medal-begins with the unbroken string of successes that helped Paul achieve a jet-setting lifestyle and land a key spot with the…


You might also like...

American Flygirl

By Susan Tate Ankeny,

Book cover of American Flygirl

Susan Tate Ankeny Author Of The Girl and the Bombardier: A True Story of Resistance and Rescue in Nazi-Occupied France

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Susan Tate Ankeny left a career in teaching to write the story of her father’s escape from Nazi-occupied France. In 2011, after being led on his path through France by the same Resistance fighters who guided him in 1944, she felt inspired to tell the story of these brave French patriots, especially the 17-year-old- girl who risked her own life to save her father’s. Susan is a member of the 8th Air Force Historical Society, the Air Force Escape and Evasion Society, and the Association des Sauveteurs d’Aviateurs Alliés. 

Susan's book list on women during WW2

What is my book about?

The first and only full-length biography of Hazel Ying Lee, an unrecognized pioneer and unsung World War II hero who fought for a country that actively discriminated against her gender, race, and ambition.

This unique hidden figure defied countless stereotypes to become the first Asian American woman in United States history to earn a pilot's license, and the first female Asian American pilot to fly for the military.

Her achievements, passionate drive, and resistance in the face of oppression as a daughter of Chinese immigrants and a female aviator changed the course of history. Now the remarkable story of a fearless underdog finally surfaces to inspire anyone to reach toward the sky.

American Flygirl

By Susan Tate Ankeny,

What is this book about?

One of WWII’s most uniquely hidden figures, Hazel Ying Lee was the first Asian American woman to earn a pilot’s license, join the WASPs, and fly for the United States military amid widespread anti-Asian sentiment and policies.

Her singular story of patriotism, barrier breaking, and fearless sacrifice is told for the first time in full for readers of The Women with Silver Wings by Katherine Sharp Landdeck, A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell, The Last Boat Out of Shanghai by Helen Zia, Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown and all Asian American, women’s and WWII history books.…


5 book lists we think you will like!

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