Someone in here has a signature to the effect of: "Have you heard the one about the statistician that drowned in a lake that has an average depth of only 3 feet.."
"why does it matter" is an interesting and telling quote from brandonF. it not only matters that a wizard failed but it critical to know who and why. the reason being as not to pattern your self/trading after this person. the wizard series is tremendously influencial and by knowing who failed and why--- one should be able to avoid the same fate. jack should write a follow up, like "where are they now?". all the best, surf
i am going to email jack schwager and ask him to do a "where are they now?" follow up book. should be interesting........
Richard Dennis blew up a fund he was managing. Lot of speculation as to how that could have happened. I would really like to know the inside story.
It seems to me there is only one way to blow up, and that is to forget your risk management. These hot shots get on a roll, get cocky, bet larger than they should and lose.
i'd agree for the most part, although there's always the "once-in-a-lifetime" meltdown/meltup that ruins even the best laid risk management plans.. i'll have to go and check , but i recall from reading the market wizards that quite a few of them got their big breaks in trading by having a huge position (relative to equity) early on in their careers...
There is alot of conflicting information regarding the death of Livermore. Some say that he lost all his money (again) in the bear market and died broke. Other sources say however that Livermore suffered from deep depression and that he was still a rich man when he killed himself.