Back to Library

Traders at Work: How the World's Most Successful Traders Make Their Living in the Markets

by Tim Bourquin (2013)

Quick summary -- an in-depth PhD-level extended summary (10-30 pages) for this book is coming soon.

Traders at Work: How the World's Most Successful Traders Make Their Living in the Markets

by Tim Bourquin

Quick Summary

An interview-based book featuring conversations with 16 successful professional traders including Todd Gordon, Linda Raschke, Peter Brandt, John Carter, and others, covering their backgrounds, methodologies, psychological approaches, and practical wisdom distilled from years of profitable trading across stocks, forex, futures, and options.

Detailed Summary

Tim Bourquin, the interviewer, presents in-depth conversations with 16 successful professional traders, each chapter dedicated to a single trader's story, methodology, and hard-won wisdom. Published by Apress, the book follows the interview-format tradition established by Jack Schwager's Market Wizards series, but with a contemporary focus on traders active in the 2010s era.

The traders profiled include Todd Gordon (founding partner of Aspen Trading Group and CNBC contributor, who began day trading on dial-up internet while in college, progressed through the "Tokyo Joe" chat room era, and developed his approach through Elliott Wave theory and technical analysis of the forex markets), Linda Raschke (legendary short-term trader known for her pattern recognition and mean-reversion strategies, one of the most consistently successful female traders in market history), Serge Berger (systematic trader combining technical analysis with quantitative methods), Alex Foster (independent trader who built a career through disciplined position management), and Derek Schimming (trader specializing in swing trading equity markets).

Peter Brandt (veteran classical chartist with over 30 years of experience trading commodity futures based on chart patterns identified in Edwards and Magee's "Technical Analysis of Stock Trends"), Rob Wilson (options and equity trader), John Carter (author and educator known for his work on squeeze plays and momentum trading, featured on trading media), Anne-Marie Baiynd (author of "The Trading Book," known for options strategies and market analysis), Jeff White (trading educator and swing trader), and Patrick Hemminger (equity trader) provide diverse perspectives on profitable approaches.

Don Miller (futures day trader profiled for his intensive, high-frequency approach to index futures), Charles German (position trader), Dr. Andrew Menaker (trading psychologist who also trades, providing a unique dual perspective on the mental game), Brian Lund (equities trader who built his career through social media and trader communities), and Michael Toma (options and equity trader) round out the profiles.

Chapter 17 synthesizes the collective wisdom into "Twenty Habits of Wealthy Traders," distilling the common threads that emerge across all the interviews: the importance of a written trading plan, position sizing discipline, the willingness to take losses quickly, the patience to wait for high-probability setups, continuous education, and the recognition that trading psychology is as important as trading methodology.

A recurring theme across the interviews is the evolution each trader underwent from novice to profitable professional -- the transition from following tips and chat rooms to developing independent analytical frameworks, the painful losses that provided crucial education, the importance of finding a methodology that matches one's personality and time availability, and the discipline to execute consistently once a methodology is proven. Several traders emphasize that trading is a career requiring the same commitment as medicine or law, not a get-rich-quick scheme accessible to casual participants.