Michael Marcus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Michael Marcus is a commodities trader, profiled in the book Market Wizards by Jack D. Schwager. In an 18-year span starting in the early 1970s he turned his initial $3,000 into $80 million[1] and so is considered one of the top 100 traders of the 20th century. Marcus met his mentor Ed Seykota while working as an analyst and learned money management from him. Later while working.[2] at Commodities Corporation and before becoming the company's executive vice president, he hired Bruce Kovner to be his assistant and taught Bruce the ins and outs of trading.[3] He obtained his Phd[1] in Psychology from Clark University.[2]
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[edit] Education
Graduated in 1969 Phi Beta Kappa from Johns Hopkins[4] and obtained his Phd in Psychology from Clark University.
[edit] Personal
He has an overflowing character and a highly attuned sense of irony[2], at one point being a devout follower of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.[1]. His first wife divorced him because he spent more time trading than with her.[5] He has a mansion with a private beach overlooking the ocean in Malibu, California [6] and he also has a ranch near Austin, Texas.[7] In the 1980s Marcus fell on his back and severely injured his lower back. For weeks after, he suffered chronic low back pain and discomfort in his legs, for which he was diagnosed with lumbar disc herniation and a coccyx injury; he decided against surgery and chose an alternative therapy. He found permanent pain relief through Prolotherapy treatments and IVSAAT therapy. Delighted with the results he funded the program to build The Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM).[8]
[edit] Career
Marcus began his trading career in 1972, when he took his whole life savings of $700 and bought plywood futures. In the summer of 1972 President Richard Nixon froze prices of some commodities like wood, but the futures contracts went sky high and Michael turned his $700 into $12,000. He would repeat the feat in 1973, turning $24,000 into $64,000.[8] He also used Freight derivatives.
While at Commodities Corp. he performed so well [2] that by 1976 he was told by his boss Helmut Weymar that he could hire an assistant. That trainee was Bruce Kovner, whom they hired not as an assistant but as a trader.[2] As the firm's leading currency trader, Marcus had to wake up every two hours throughout the night to check the markets, which had the negative consequence of ending his first marriage.[9] As a founding trader of the firm, Marcus rose through the ranks at Commodities Corp. eventually becoming an EVP.[4] Marcus has recently diversified by investing in small-company stock through his holding company Canmarc Trading Co and later made private-placement investments in small OTC Bulletin Board listed companies like Prospector Consolidated Resources[10] and Encore Clean Energy Inc [11] and Pink Sheets Touchstone Resources.
ViRexx Medical Corp, a company focused on immunotherapy treatments for certain cancers, chronic hepatitis B and C, and embolotherapy treatments for tumors, announced Marcus's election to its Board of Directors at its Annual General Meeting held May 25, 2006.[4]
[edit] Quotes
In the words of Thomas A Bass, in the book The Predictors: How a Band of Maverick Physicists Used Chaos Theory to Trade Their Way to a Fortune on Wall Street.
| One was Michael Marcus, a former trader at the New York Cotton Exchange, who went on to become one of the world's biggest currency speculators. He made a fortune in gold and another fortune in cocoa before moving into trading tanker rates and other indices in the shipping industry. He parlayed a thirty-thousand-dollar stake into an eighty-million-dollar fortune. He owned ten houses in every beautiful place in the world, many of which he had never slept in.
His wife left him, but Marcus was too busy to notice. Trading from a beachside mansion in California, he was waking up every two hours throughout the night to place three-hundred-million-dollar bets on currency markets in Australia, Hong Kong, Zurich, and London. His secret? Marcus is a chartist. He is a trend follower who keeps an eye on market penetration and resistance. |
[edit] See also
List of personalities associated with Wall Street
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c Schwartz, Martin (1999). Pit Bull. pp 22, 176, 179, 184, 190: Collins. ISBN 0-88730-956-9.
- ^ a b c d e Weiss, Philip. "George Soros’s Right-Wing Twin", New York magazine, 2005-08-08. Retrieved on 2006-08-05.
- ^ "Kovner, Bruce on Forbes 400", Forbes 400 1999, Forbes magazine, 1999-10-01. Retrieved on 2006-08-06.
- ^ a b c ViRexx Shareholders Elect Michael Marcus to Board of Directors. Zangani (2006-04-08). Retrieved on 2006-08-05.
- ^ Bass, Thomas A. (2000). The Predictors. p 220: Owl Books; Reprint edition. ISBN 0-8050-5757-9..
- ^ SEC edgar. SEC (2006-08-06). Retrieved on 2006-08-06.
- ^ SEC info. SEC (2006-08-06). Retrieved on 2006-08-06.
- ^ a b CAM Research Institute. About us, How we got started (2006-08-06). Retrieved on 2006-08-06.
- ^ Griffiths, Jay. "Colonising the night", Red Pepper magazine. Retrieved on 2006-08-06.
- ^ SEC edgar. SEC (2006-08-06). Retrieved on 2006-08-06.
- ^ SEC edgar. SEC (2006-08-06). Retrieved on 2006-08-06.
[edit] References
[edit] Magazines & Newspapers
Smith, Randall. "Bruce Who? A $100 Million Man Finally Gets Attention, Much to His Chagrin", The Wall Street Journal, Oct 11, 1991. Retrieved on 2006-08-26.
Smith, Randall. "Commodities Corp. May Be Trading Away Its Brilliance", The Wall Street Journal, Dec 10, 1992. Retrieved on 2006-08-26.
[edit] Books
Schwager, Jack D. (1995). Technical Analysis. Wiley. ISBN 0-471-02051-6.
Rosenblum, Irwin (2003). Up, Down, Up, Down, Up. Xlibris Corporation. ISBN 1-4134-1685-3.
Banks, Ferdinand E. (2001). Global Finance and Financial Markets: A Modern Introduction. p 79: World Scientific Publishing ( Hardcover). ISBN 981-02-4326-X.
Vaga, Tonis (1994). Profiting from Chaos. Mcgraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-066786-1.
Mieg, Harald A. (2001). The Social Psychology of Expertise. page 124: LEA, Inc. ISBN 0-8058-3750-7.
Schwager, Jack D. (2006). Market Wizards: Michael Marcus, Blighting Never Strikes Twice. Marketplace Books. ISBN 1-59280-285-0.
[edit] Further reading
Schwager, Jack D. (1993). Market Wizards: Interviews with Top Traders. 48 pages: Collins; Reissue edition. ISBN 0-88730-610-1.
SEC profile (2006-08-06). Retrieved on 2006-08-06.
