Steve Weiss Says Nobody is Smarter than the Market

Benzinga recently interviewed Steve Weiss, author of The Big Win, and we chatted about his book and how it can help develop trading strategies. Weiss told us that he was fascinated by the story of Renée Haugerud, one if the "legendary investors" who he interviewed. "She's a top commodities investor," Weiss said. "Her father was the sheriff of a local town in Minnesota, and they actually had the jail cell in their house. He was also a farmer and, when she was just a young girl, it hit home to her that you can essentially invest in commodities without having to own farms to make money. She spent 14 years at Cargill running every single desk that they had. That was an interesting story leading to her being a very successful hedge fund manager with a 14 year track record and only one down year." The author said that he defines a trading legend as, "Somebody that has either created an investment strategy or has honed it to become an art, whether it's Martin Whitman, who was not the first distressed investor but who took it to the level that it's at today. Or somebody like Aubrey McClendon, who founded and built what was at the time the largest natural gas company in the world. Now it's the second largest. The mistake that he committed in terms of over leverage is actually what we're seeing at Chesapeake these days. In terms of the other investors that I out into The Big Win, Chuck Royce is really the father of small cap value investing. I went through people who had very good track records, and came from humble roots. I didn't want it to be somebody who just fell into something. I wanted it to be inspirational for the reader, as well as them saying, 'you know what, I can follow this process'." The best advice Weiss has ever been given? " The advice is to keep your head down, do your work, and never think you're smarter than the market. Never confuse a bull market with brains or a bear market with stupidity. Sometimes you have to step back, clear your head, and go back to your process." Follow me @BCallwood.