The Logical Trader Testimonials

Paul Tudor Jones
Chairman and CEO of Tudor Investment Corp.
(from the Foreward to The Logical Trader: Applying A Method To The Madness)

My first face-to-face encounter with Mark Fisher occurred in the silver pit in the early '80s on the COMEX in New York where he often resided. An occasional visitor to that club of gentlemanly behavior, I was given an order to buy 200 contracts of silver on the close by one of my upstairs friends. The treatment I received was something akin to that of a piece of red meat thrown into a cage of half-starved lions. I remember being pounced upon by four or five "locals," not the least of which was this short blur of energy shouting, cajoling, and talking to me so fast that I could only recognize the badge FSH (or "Fish" as he was known to thousands on the trading floor). As he always does, he somehow innately knew exactly how many I had to buy and waited until I had bought all but 20 or 30 contracts before selling me the top tick of the close. There was no one better and there never will be anyone as good as Mark Fisher when it comes to smelling an order that a pit broker has in his hand.

It will not take you long in reading this book to realize that Mark Fisher is being powered by some type of energy source that is not endemic to the normal human condition. And to say that he is a control freak is an understatement. But to anyone who wants to learn how to trade and takes the time to read this book, there is zero doubt that Fish's messianic willingness to share with the public the successful system he has developed is an opportunity to be exploited. He details in very methodical and systematic fashion a unique way of approaching markets and creating fantastic reward/risk opportunities over virtually any timeframe, from day trading to long-term positioning. Creating these favorable reward/risk trades is the genesis of all profitable trading and his plan is one that has been successfully implemented by hundreds. I know this first hand as many of the traders who worked for me when I had a floor operation used his system successfully to trade profitably.

For anyone starting out in the trading business, Mark's trading experiences and ACD system provide an invaluable blueprint for trading success. Central to his trading methodology is his incredible discipline, which has been his hallmark as a trader over the years. As he stresses throughout the book, the most important factor for traders to identify is the point at which to get out if they are wrong. If traders learn nothing else from this book, the lesson of knowing where to get out is one that will spare them much physical, emotional, and financial pain.

While presenting a "logical" method to approach the market, Mark also shares with the reader, colorful and entertaining stories of the breakdowns and breakthroughs of several traders who he has worked with over the years. In addition, Chapter 7 entitled "The ACD Version of Ripley's Believe It or Not!" presents incredible, real stories from the trading pit. Experienced traders will see themselves and their flaws in these stories, while novices can learn from these professional traders' mistakes.

When I meet someone who is interested in learning the trading business, I always refer them to what I consider to be the four Bibles of the business: Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre, the fictionalized biography of the fabled Jesse Livermore; Technical Analysis of Stock Trends by McGee and Edwards, which was written in the first half of the 20th century and whose tenets still hold today; The Elliott Wave Theorist by Robert Prechter and A. J. Frost, a classic; and finally Market Wizards by Jack Schwager, which is a compilation of interviews with great traders. Reminiscences is a wonderfully entertaining read that mostly illuminates the emotional highs and lows that go with trading and tape reading. Technical Analysis of Stock Trends and The Elliott Wave Theorist both give very specific and systematic ways to approach developing great reward/risk ratios for entering into a business contract with the marketplace, which is what every trade should be if properly and thoughtfully executed. Finally, Market Wizards is a great read if but to learn one lesson over and over again from virtually every single trader who tells his tale in the book - that is, to make great sums of money you first have to learn how to lose much smaller sums of it when you're wrong.

I mention the other four books because, after having read The Logical Trader, I am going to add Fish's book to my list of must reads for the beginning trader. Having seen hundreds of traders matriculate through the doors here at the Tudor Group, I am consistently amazed that virtually all of them have different ways of approaching and reaping profits from the marketplace. There really are dozens if not hundreds of ways of making money. But ultimately, though all of them may have different techniques, they share the common trait of somehow creating very favorable reward/risk ratios for trading despite their myriad approaches. That is also what The Logical Trader accomplishes in a straightforward fashion. It gives you a well-developed, systematic way to competently apply leverage in the marketplace and garner great performance from it. How could we not pay close attention with great gratitude to the vision that one of the most successful floor traders of all time has decided to share with us? Over the past 20 years that I have known him, Fish has been a giving and generous person in every aspect of his life. This is but another in a long line of incredibly valuable gifts he has given to people that he both knows and doesn't know.

Thank you, Mark.