The Fortune Group, not Wizard Trading anymore... I stand corrected. Thanks for that link. That's a funny story (well, maybe not for him at the time) about being denied entry into South Africa because of a full US passport! I see that it's something called "Market Wizards Fund of Funds"... talk about subtle. Sounds like he no longer needs to lose sleep over making day-to-day trading / investment decisions himself.
I would say in general that they base their decisions on information -- information those of us trading from the plastic bubble of our living rooms and home offices will never have access to. I believe virtually none of those interviewed (at least in the first 2 books) got their start from trading out of their homes just "tape reading" or drawing chart lines. Just about all started out at an institutional desk, trading directly on the exchange floor, receiving mentoring from other experienced traders, etc. And I am sure by the time they reach a certain echelon of achievement, they really don't need to look very hard for good information to trade off of -- other people will be very eager to bring it to them. I'm not saying that there will never be another home-grown Jesse Livermore of our generation, but the point is that the kind of trading done at that level will be completely alien to the vast majority of us trading with what tools the typical quote vendor provides. Even if we got the chance to sit at a market wizard's side for one day's worth of trading, we are flying too much in the dark to make good use of anything other than the "generic" truisms we take for granted today.
============== Watch Cramer for fun, some info; not sure if he will make #4. Would like to see #4 more. =========== Are you kidding about Joe Denappoli; not kidding ,Joe made Supertraders by Art Collins book Fred i read; & reread that Supertraders book Fred. And while it does sound like a kidding snakeoil title; When Supertraders meet Kryptonite by Art Collins, actually is more supertraders than kryptonite. However have never seen Joe on TV so cant comment on that.
lots of good ideas from the books people expect trading systems from books, but all books give you are ideas where you extrapolate from.