Michael Marcus miraculously turned $30,000 into $80 million during his distinguished trading career. His poorhouse to penthouse story outlined in Schwager’s classic Market Wizards makes for one of the best interviews in the book.

But what many people gloss over is the fact that he was also part of what could be the most impressive trading academy of all time, Commodities Corp. Amos Hostetter along with Helmut Weymar founded Commodities Corp back in 1969 and treated it sort of like a modern day startup incubator. Traders would come in and receive top notch mentorship, learn the craft, and then pass on the knowledge to the next trader.

Commodities Corp. helped train and mentor Marcus who then in turn went on to mentor and train guys like Bruce Kovner, another Market Wizard. This company was popping out trading stars like no other. That’s what happens when you have the best in the world teaching and cultivating traders who want to be the best in the world.

Needless to say, the wisdom that this group of all-stars shared among each other is worth reading many times over.

Here are some of our favorite morsels of knowledge spoken by Marcus himself:

On Having the Proper Mindset

  1. I think that, in the end, losing begets losing. When you start losing, it touches off negative elements in your psychology; it leads to pessimism.
  2. I am very open-minded. I am willing to take in information that is difficult to accept emotionally, but which I still recognize to be true.
  3. Gut feel is very important. I don’t know of any great professional trader that doesn’t have it.
  4. Being a successful trader also takes courage: the courage to try, the courage to fail, the courage to succeed, and the courage to keep on going when the going gets tough.
  5. I would sometimes think that maybe I ought to stop trading because it was very painful tokeep losing. 
  6. In ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’ there is a scene where the lead looks up and talks toGod. I would look up and say, ‘Am I really that stupid?’ And I seemed to hear a clear answer saying, ‘No, you are not stupid. You just have to keep at it.’ So I did.
  7. Trading has two types of capital that must be managed – financial capital and mental capital. In this case, losing a lot or being unsure of your system drains you of your mental capital. You don’t want to do that. Losing either your financial or mental capital will knock you out of business. So protect both equally well.

For more information on how we incorporate Marcus’ lessons into our trading process check out our investment handbook here.