Finance Trends Letter

In our follow up to last week's post, Marty Schwartz ("Pit Bull") speaks at Amherst College , today we bring you something old and new.  From Jack Schwager's original Market Wizards (1989) comes an interview with Marty Schwartz , "Champion Trader". We'll provide you with some quotes and insights from Schwartz's interview, but I also encourage you to get a copy of the book and read it cover to cover, if you haven't already.  On to the good stuff. Here is an excerpt from Jack Schwager's intro to the discussion:  "I interviewed Marty Schwartz at his office after trading hours. I found him to be very opinionated and intense about the subject of trading. This intensity occasionally spills over into anger when a raw nerve is hit (such as program trading). In fact, Schwartz readily admits that he finds anger a useful trait in trading. None of this "going with the market flow" philosophy for Schwartz. In his view, the marketpla...

Trader and Pit Bull author, Marty Schwartz speaks at Amherst College and shares lessons on markets and life in a rare, hour-long video session (Hat Tip: Tischendorf Letter ).  You may also know Schwartz from his interview in Jack Schwager's Market Wizards , a chapter which I will revisit in a follow-up post.  For now, let's absorb some of the wisdom and life lessons he imparts to the students at Amherst. Those of us who are students of trading and life may find a few pearls in the highlights below:  Marty Schwartz begins his talk by relating some of his experiences as an Amherst student back in the 1960s (a technological "stone age" by comparison to today). He was decked early on with some pretty poor grades, but he fought to get back on track and completed his studies successfully. One recurring theme from the early portion of his talk is, "it didn't kill me so it made me stronger." . Schwartz tells students, "I'm here to tell yo...

Stanley Druckenmiller , a hedge fund Hall of Famer, speaks with Bloomberg TV at the Robin Hood Investment Conference and shares his thoughts on IBM and Amazon, technological innovation, his trading methods, and the current state of the hedge fund industry. A few notes and quotes from Stan Druckenmiller's latest interview (watch the full interview below): On IBM : Druckenmiller is short IBM. Sales have been declining since 2009. The cloud and Amazon's AWS is "killing" IBM. Says Druckenmiller, "I think the truth teller in companies is free cash flow and the free cash flow [declined considerably] since last year.". Amazon : Thinks Jeff Bezos is an incredible businessman who "creates monopolies". AWS is killing it and the market doesn't fully realize how important this area is for Amazon's revenues. Notes that his Amazon long is not as big a position as his IBM short.  Note : You'll find a bit more about Amazon's stock and th...

Veteran stock trader and Market Wizard, Mark Minervini speaks to Traders World magazine and offers up key insights on trading success and why most traders fail.  First off, if you don't know Mark Minervini , you may want to check out his track record and read some of his previous interviews (he was interviewed by Jack Schwager in Stock Market Wizards ) to understand his trading philosophy. You can find some good interview links included at the end of this post.  Now if you've read some of Mark's previous interviews, you'll know that persistence plays a big part in his trading success . His latest interview opens on that note, as Mark is asked about the key traits of successful traders.  " Larry : What are the key traits for a successful trader? Mark : When I started 30 years ago, I knew stock trading was going to be exceptionally challenging and I knew success was not going to happen overnight. I made a decision that I was going to put as much time and ef...

Update (May 2017): Bitcoin has recently reclaimed the $1000 price level and moved on t o new price highs . As Bitcoin, blockchain technolog y, and altcoin s such as Ethereum have surged to new levels of adoption, we revisit our original 2013 posts on Bitcoin and the rise of cryptocurrencies . Bitcoin has recently zoomed past the $200 mark and is approaching its all-time highs. What better time to update you on the developing virtual currencies trend and to offer you new price data and insight into this growing market? Here are the latest Bitcoin charts using Mt. Gox data (denominated in US dollars) and BTC China (denominated in Chinese Yuan) via bitcoincharts.com . Note that prices are fast approaching the 2013 "pre-crash" highs.  I have been tweeting about B itcoin and its price uptrends on Twitter and StockTwits throughout the year. Those of you follow me may recall this tweet from March 2013 when Bitcoin was trading at $43.  Bitcoin quickly...

Quick note on our nation's leading e-retailer, Amazon.com (scroll down for long term price chart).  As I mentioned on Twitter tonight, I've never really followed Amazon or its stock closely. To me, the ongoing debate between bulls and bears re: Amazon's profits (or lack thereof) is just an interesting case study of the market weighing disparate views.  So far, the market's "weighing machine" has largely been pointing towards the bullish side of the scale, at least where AMZN is concerned. Here's the New York Times on Amazon's third quarter earnings report.  " Amazon’s third quarter followed a familiar script: it sold vast quantities of things, lost money while doing so, and investors were delighted. Revenue was $17.09 billion, up 24 percent and about $400 million more than predicted, the company said Thursday. But all that volume could not yield a profit. Amazon lost 9 cents a share, or $41 million, just like as had anticipate...