Michael Marcus

Michael Marcus began his trading career in the early 1970s at Commodities Corporation, the Princeton-based firm that became famous for producing a generation of exceptional traders including Ed Seykota and Bruce Kovner. Marcus was mentored directly by Ed Seykota, absorbing the systematic trend-following philosophy that would define his approach. Starting with roughly $30,000 in trading capital, Marcus compounded his account to approximately $80 million over about 10 years — among the best documented trading performance records of the era. His approach combined trend-following disciplines with careful position sizing and risk management, entering large positions in futures markets when trends aligned across multiple timeframes. Marcus was instrumental in mentoring Bruce Kovner, who went on to found Caxton Associates and become one of the most successful macro hedge fund managers in history. Kovner has credited Marcus with being the single most important influence on his career. Michael Marcus features as the opening interview in Jack Schwager's landmark "Market Wizards" (1989), which brought the stories of exceptional traders to a broad audience for the first time. He has since lived relatively privately, rarely appearing at public events, but his story continues to inspire systematic and trend-following traders.