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A collection of trading wisdom guotes from MercenaryTrader.com
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Courtesy of MercenaryTrader.com
One of the best sites on the web for great trading wisdom.
1325 You are what you do. A man is defined by his actions, not his memory. Total Recall
1324
If a self-reinforcing process goes on long enough it must eventually become
unsustainable because either the gap between thinking and reality becomes too
wide or the participant's bias becomes too pronounced. Hence, reflexive
processes that become historically significant tend to follow an initially self-
reinforcing, but eventually self-defeating, pattern. That is what I call the boom/bust
sequence. George Soros
1323
Usually some error in the act of valuation is involved. The most common error is a
failure to recognize that a so-called fundamental value is not really independent of
the act of valuation. That was the case in the conglomerate boom, where per-
share earnings growth could be manufactured by acquisitions, and also in the
international lending boom where the lending activities of the banks helped
improve the debt ratios that banks used to guide them in their lending activity. George Soros
1322
Economic theory needs to be fundamentally reconsidered. There is an element of
uncertainty in economic processes that has been largely left unaccounted for... We
must take a radically different view of the role that thinking plays in shaping events. George Soros
1321
Classical economic theory assumes that market participants act on the basis of
perfect knowledge. That assumption is false. The participant's perceptions
influence the market in which they participate, but the market action also
influences the participant's perceptions. They cannot obtain perfect knowledge of
the market because their thinking is always affecting the market and the market is
affecting their thinking. George Soros
1320 If you really want to know yourself, just become a speculator. Trading proverb
1319 There is no way one could produce results like ours without ups and downs. George Soros
1318
The real-time experiment turned out to be a very good idea because it stimulated
my thinking. Having to explain my reasons for making decisions forced me to
become more coherent; it imposed a certain discipline on me, which was very
helpful. George Soros
1317
I felt it was too late to go short, but then I re-read my memo that predicted that they
would go bust and I realized that it could never be too late. It was the only time I
made more than 100 percent on my money on the short side because, as the
stocks went down, I kept topping up my short positions. George Soros
1316
In their worship of logic and rationality, economists are amusingly short-sighted
and irrational. Jack Sparrow
1315
When the California residential home market collapsed, the market thought the
company might go broke, but it survived the test and we made a fortune. That is
when I made the rule that one should own stocks when they have successfully
passed a difficult test, but one should avoid them during the test — something that
is easier said than done. George Soros
1314 I am good at riding the tide, but not the ripples of a swimming pool. George Soros
1313
...I am particularly keen on investment theses that the market is reluctant to
accept. These are usually the strongest. George Soros
1312
[The danger in taking risks] stimulates me. But don't misunderstand what I am
saying: I don't like danger; I like to avoid it. That is what makes my juices flow. George Soros
1311
There is nothing like danger to focus the mind, and I do need the excitement
connected with taking risks in order to think clearly. It is an essential part of my
thinking ability. Risk taking is, to me, an essential ingredient in thinking clearly. George Soros
1310
Risk taking is painful. Either you are willing to bear the pain yourself or you try to
pass it on to others. Anyone who is in a risk taking business but cannot face the
consequences is no good. George Soros
1309
I am outside. I am a thinking participant and thinking means putting yourself
outside the subject you think about. Perhaps it comes easier to me than to many
others because I have a very abstract mind and I actually enjoy looking at things,
including myself, from the outside. George Soros
1308
Most of the time we are punished if we go against the trend. Only at inflection
points are we rewarded. George Soros
1307
I watch out for telltale signs that a trend may be exhausted. Then I disengage from
the herd and look for a different investment thesis. Or, if I think the trend has been
carried to excess, I may probe going against it. George Soros
1306
The prevailing wisdom is that markets are always right. I take the opposite
position. I assume that markets are always wrong. Even if my assumption is
occasionally wrong, I use it as a working hypothesis. George Soros
1305
Being so critical, I am often considered a contrarian. But I am very cautious about
going against the herd; I am liable to be trampled on... Most of the time I am a
trend follower, but all the time I am aware that I am a member of the herd and I am
on the lookout for inflection points. George Soros
1304 Are you gonna bark all day, little doggie, or are you gonna bite? Reservoir Dogs
1303
I come from the water, that weren't no easy thing... It's more than nature, it's like
my destiny... The Toadies
1302 'Get a hunch and bet a bunch.' Trading proverb
1301
When everyone 95% agrees on something — home prices will never decline,
China can't be stopped, commodities can't go down, etc. — there is real risk of
'everyone' taking a frying pan to the face. Jack Sparrow
1300
To others, being wrong is a source of shame; to me, recognizing my mistakes is a
source of pride. Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human
condition, there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes. George Soros
1299
I look for conditions of disequilibrium. They send out certain signals that activate
me. So my decisions are really made using a combination of theory and instinct. If
you like, you may call it intuition. George Soros
1298
I work with hypotheses. I form a thesis about the anticipated sequence of events
and then I compare the actual course of events with my thesis; that gives me a
criterion by which I can evaluate my hypothesis. George Soros
1297
I would put it this way: I do not play according to a given set of rules; I look for
changes in the rules of the game. George Soros
1296 Making money in commodities is easy -- but just try to keep it. Trading proverb
1295
If you want to make a birthday cake from scratch, you must first create the
universe. Carl Sagan
1294
That is the nature of pattern recognition, asking 'What can I infer about this
situation based on similarities to what I already know and trust that I understand?'
There is less emphasis on trying to reason out things on the basis that they are
special because they are unique, which in a financial context is perhaps the
definition of a speculation... It creates an impulse always to connect new
knowledge to old and to primarily be interested in new knowledge that genuinely
builds on the old. Alice Schroeder
1293
People who are psychologically and financially invested in a stock work very hard
to resolve any newly arisen cognitive dissonance in favor of their vested interests. Alice Schroeder
1292
As humans, our brains aren't really wired to make good probabilistic decisions.
(Actually, this is a huge understatement; many of us never fully grasp the ideas of
probability and expectation at all.) Dan Harrington
1291
But of course there is no secret; there is only the doing of all those little things,
each one done correctly, time and again, until excellence in every detail becomes
a firmly ingrained habit, an ordinary part of one's everyday life. Daniel F. Chambliss
1290
In the pursuit of excellence, maintaining mundanity is the key psychological
challenge. In common parlance, winners don’t choke. Faced with what seems to
be a tremendous challenge or a strikingly unusual event, such as the Olympic
Games, the better athletes take it as a normal, manageable situation ('It's just
another swim meet,' is a phrase sometimes used by top swimmers at a major
event such as the Games) and do what is necessary to deal with it. Daniel F. Chambliss
1289
Athletes move up to the top ranks through qualitative jumps: noticeable changes in
their techniques, discipline, and attitude, accomplished usually through a change in
settings (e.g., joining a new team with a new coach, new friends, etc.) who work at
a higher level. Without such qualitative jumps, no major improvements
(movements through levels) will take place... Daniel F. Chambliss
1288
Superlative performance is really a confluence of dozens of small skills or
activities, each one learned or stumbled upon, which have been carefully drilled
into habit and then are fitted together in a synthesized whole. There is nothing
extraordinary or superhuman in any one of those actions; only the fact that they
are done consistently and correctly, and all together, produce excellence. Daniel F. Chambliss
1287
Every generation has its characteristic folly, but the basic cause is the same:
People persist in believing that what has happened in the recent past will go on
happening into the indefinite future, even while the ground is shifting under their
feet. George J. Church
1286
A great company could be a terrible investment if its price rise has already more
than discounted the bullish fundamentals. Conversely, a company that has been
experiencing problems and is the subject of negative news could be a great
investment if its price decline has more than discounted the bearish information. Jack Schwager
1285
When to get out of a position is as important as when to get in. Any market
strategy that ignores trade liquidation is by definition incomplete. Jack Schwager
1284
Risk control should not be confused with fear of risk. A willingness to accept risk is
probably an essential personality trait for a trader. Jack Schwager
1283
One of the greatest tragedies of life is the murder of a beautiful theory by a gang of
brutal facts. Benjamin Franklin
1282
Even great traders sometimes have completely wrongheaded ideas when they
start. They ultimately succeed, however, because they have the flexibility to
change their approach. Jack Schwager
1281
Define a target, a strategy consistent with the target, a set of disciplines to follow,
and risk management guidelines. Then trade, track, and evaluate your
performance. Ari Kiev
1280
The objective of setting a target is not necessarily to reach it, but rather to
establish a standard against which to measure your performance. If you are not
reaching your target, it forces you to focus on what you are doing wrong or what
you may not be doing that you should. The target holds you to a higher standard of
performance. Ari Kiev
1279
Believing that an outcome is possible makes it achievable. The classic example is
Roger Bannister's penetration of the four-minute mile mark. Before he ran his sub
four-minute mile in 1954, this feat was considered an impossible barrier that was
beyond human physical capabilities. After he ran his so-called magic mile, many
other runners suddenly began breaking this once seemingly impossible barrier. Ari Kiev
1278
The mind must always be in the state of 'flowing,' for when it stops anywhere that
means the flow is interrupted and it is this interruption that is injurious to the well-
being of the mind. In the case of the swordsman, it means death. When the
swordsman stands against his opponent, he is not to think of the opponent, nor of
himself, nor of his enemy's sword movements. He just stands there with his sword
which, forgetful of all technique, is ready only to follow the dictates of the
subconscious. The man has effaced himself as the wielder of the sword. When he
strikes, it is not the man but the sword in the hand of the man's subconscious that
strikes. Zen master Takuan
1277
The mind could be said to be working at a very high speed, but with no intentions,
plans or direction. In analogy a clear mind is compared to a still pond, which is able
to clearly reflect the moon and trees. But just as waves in the pond will distort the
picture of reality, so will the thoughts we hold onto disrupt the true perception of
reality. Wikipedia (Mushin)
1276
Mushin is achieved when a person's mind is free from thoughts of anger, fear, or
ego during combat or everyday life. There is an absence of discursive thought and
judgment, so the person is totally free to act and react towards an opponent
without hesitation and without disturbance from such thoughts. At this point, a
person relies not on what they think should be the next move, but what is their
trained natural reaction or what is felt intuitively. Wikipedia (Mushin)
1275
Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and
bark is not smooth — nor does lightning travel in a straight line. Benoit Mandelbrot
1274
Think. Prepare. Plan in advance when there's no time pressure. Then, in real life,
do what you said. Mike Bloomberg
1273
Being a great trader is a process. It's a race with no finish line. The markets are
not static. No single style or approach can provide superior results over long
periods of time. To continue to outperform, the great traders continue to learn and
adapt. Jack Schwager
1272
You can't control what the market does, but you can control your reaction to the
market. I examine what I do all the time. That's what trading is all about. Steve Cohen
1271
You can't have everybody on one side of the fence. The world doesn't work that
way. Steve Cohen
1270
When I saw that screen light up that day in the Merrill Lynch offices, I lost any
residual doubt that Bloomberg could make it. We had picked just the right project.
It was big enough to be useful, small enough to be possible. Start with a small
piece, fulfill one goal at a time, on time. Do it with all things in life. Sit down and
learn to read one-syllable words. If you try to read Chaucer in elementary school,
you'll never accomplish anything. You can't jump to the end game right away, in
computers, politics, love, or any other aspect of life. Mike Bloomberg
1269
I have friends who get emotional about the market. They fight it. Why put yourself
in that position? Steve Cohen
1268
The thing is to start moving your feet. I find that too many traders just stand there
and let the truck roll over them. Steve Cohen
1267
If I am in a trade because of a catalyst, the first thing I check is whether the
catalyst still applies. Steve Cohen
1266
[Wharton] taught you that 40 percent of a stock's price movement was due to the
market, 30 percent to the sector, and only 30 percent to the stock itself, which is
something that I believe is true. I don't know if the percentages are exactly correct,
but conceptually the idea makes sense. Steve Cohen
1265
Whatever attitude you are in, do not be conscious of making the attitude; think only
of cutting. Miyamoto Musashi
1264
Hand reading works because most players play most hands in a relatively logical
way most of the time. By bringing logic to bear on their decisions, you can keep
eliminating hands that don't fit the observed data. Dan Harrington
1263
If you can get savage capitalists to rationally act like a team, then you have a
beautiful thing. Cliff Asness
1262 They can steal your idea, but they can't steal execution. Silicon Valley proverb
1261
David didn't beat Goliath with a whiteboard. Go get amongst it, and prepare to bob
and weave. Tim Ferriss
1260
It comes down to trying to expose yourself to the best things that humans have
done — and then try to bring those things into what you're doing. Steve Jobs
1259
A market that is driven by inflows can have small corrections, but it has to then
immediately recover to new highs to keep generating new money inflows.
Otherwise, money inflows are likely to dry up, and the market will fall apart.
Therefore, this type of market is likely to either trend higher or break sharply. John Bender
1258
Each stock has its own probability distribution that depends on a host of factors.
Who has what position? Where did the major buyers accumulate their positions?
Where are their stop-loss points? What price levels are likely to be technically
significant? John Bender
1257
It's not a matter of coming up with a one-size-fits-all model that is better than the
standard Black-Scholes model. The key point is that the correct probability
distribution is different for every market and every time period. The probability
distribution has to be estimated on a case-by-case basis. John Bender
1256
Regardless of whether technical analysis has any validity, enough people believe
in it to impact the market. For example, if people expect a stock to find support at
65, lo and behold, they're willing to buy it at 66. That is not a random walk
statement. John Bender
1255
It might seem that if you have an edge, the way to maximize the edge is to trade as
big as you can. But that's not the case, because of risk. As a professional gambler
or as a trader, you are constantly walking the line between maximizing edge and
minimizing your risk of tapping out. John Bender
1254
I don't think anyone is more disciplined than I am. When I put on a trade, I have a
contingency plan for every possible outcome. I can't think of any circumstance that
would be an exception. If there were, I would have a plan for that too. Mark Minervini
1253
Normal human tendencies are traits that cause you to do poorly. Therefore, to be
successful as a trader you need to condition abnormal responses. You hear many
traders say that you have to do the opposite of your gut response — when you feel
good about a position you should sell, and when you feel terrible about it, you
should buy more. In the beginning that's true, but as you condition yourself for
abnormal responses, somewhere along the line you become skilled. Then your gut
becomes right. Mark Minervini
1252
I would rather get stopped out of a trade five times in a row, taking a small loss
each time, than take one large loss. Mark Minervini
1251
Most people just cannot weather the learning curve. As soon as it gets difficult, and
their approach isn't working up to their expectations, they begin to look for
something else. As a result, they become slightly efficient in many areas without
becoming very good in any single methodology. The reality is that it takes a very
long time to develop a superior approach, and along the way, you are going to go
through periods where you do poorly. Ironically, those are the periods that give you
the most valuable information. Mark Minervini
1250
First and foremost, understand that you will always make mistakes. The only way
to prevent mistakes from turning into disasters is to accept losses while they are
small and then move on. Mark Minervini
1249
I constantly try to figure out how the market can trick or fool the majority of
investors. Then after the majority have been fooled I get in at what I call the 'point
of smooth sailing.' A so-called failed signal can actually be the beginning of a more
complex pattern that is far more reliable than the initial signal based on a
conventional pattern. Mark Minervini
1248
Let's say I buy a stock because of a signal and the market dips enough to stop me
out. The stock then witnesses a huge reversal and closes near the high of the day.
That price action may be an indication that there was a shakeout, which knocked
out most of the weak hands, and the stock is ready to go up. Putting the long back
on at that point may well be a higher probability trade than the original trade. Mark Minervini
1247
You can't get beat if you have a great defense. I would always prefer to bet on a
football team that has a great defense as opposed to one that has a great offense.
If a trade doesn't work out quickly, I take a small loss, and I may have to take a
small loss many times. Mark Minervini
1246
The key is to know when to do nothing. Most people, even if they have a winning
strategy, will not follow it because they lack discipline. Mark Minervini
1245 I think that anyone who wants to be a trader should learn how to play poker. Mark Minervini
1244
My results were transformed when I understood that what counts isn't how often
you're right, but how much you profit on your winning trades versus how much you
lose on your losing trades. On average, I'm only profitable about 50 percent of the
time, but I make much more when I'm right than I lose when I'm wrong. Mark Minervini
1243
If you are a beginner, trade with an amount of money that is small enough so that
you can afford to lose it, but large enough so that you will feel the pain if you do.
Otherwise, you're fooling yourself. Mark Minervini
1242
It is much better to learn the lesson that you can lose everything when you don't
have that much money than to learn the same lesson later on. Mark Minervini
1241
Containing your losses is 90 percent of the battle, regardless of the strategy. In
addition, if you put yourself in a position to buy stocks that have the potential to go
up a lot, your odds will be better. Mark Minervini
1240
You have all these people trying to come up with formulas to beat the market. The
market is not a science. The science may help increase the probabilities, but to
excel you need to master the art of trading. Mark Minervini
1239
My basic philosophy is: Expose your portfolio to the best stocks that the market
has to offer and cut your losses very quickly when you're wrong. That one
sentence essentially describes my strategy. Mark Minervini
1238
The motivation is always the same. Although I may hold the position much longer, I
am buying the stock because I think it will go up within hours or at most days. Mark Minervini
1237
When you buy an option, the premium steadily evaporates over time. It's like
holding an ice cube in your hand: the longer it's there, the more it diminishes until
finally it doesn't exist at all. Mark Cook
1236
Bad traders don't make profits — they only take out short-term loans from the
market. Wall Street proverb
1235 When the levee breaks, momma you got to move... Led Zeppelin
1234
When everything happens at once, wide and fast moving problems simply route
around any central authority. Therefore overall governance must arise from the
most humble interdependent acts done locally in parallel, and not from a central
command. Kevin Kelly
1233
The work of managing a natural environment is inescapably a work of local
knowledge. Kevin Kelly
1232 In turbulence is the preservation of the world. Kevin Kelly
1231
The nature of life is to delight in all possible loopholes. Every creature is in some
way hacking a living by reinterpreting the rules. Kevin Kelly
1230 'It works, why worry?' is life's deepest philosophy. Kevin Kelly
1229 A network nurtures small failures in order that large failures don't happen as often. Kevin Kelly
1228
There is nothing to be found in a beehive that is not submerged in a bee. And yet
you can search a bee forever with cyclotron and fluoroscope, and you will never
find a hive. Kevin Kelly
1227 Complexity must be grown from simple systems that already work. Kevin Kelly
1226
Hope should never be in your vocabulary. It is the worst four-letter word I know. As
soon as you say, 'Boy, I hope this position comes back,' you should reduce your
size. Mark Cook
1225
I would attribute my own success to having both conviction about my gut feelings
and the ability to act on them quickly. That is so critical. Stuart Walton
1224
When I talk to potential new investors I focus on my mistakes. Because if you are
going to invest with someone, you want that person to have made mistakes on his
own tab and not to make them on yours. Someone who has never made a mistake
is dangerous, because mistakes will happen. If you've made mistakes, you realize
they can recur, and it makes you more careful. Stuart Walton
1222
Hazarding guesses (extremely rough ones, for that matter) about the behavior of a
population has some meaning. It is, however, almost impossible to foresee the
behavior of an individual, even on a day-to-day basis. In the same way, the
physicist can prognosticate with great exactitude the time a gram of radium will
need to halve its activity but is totally unable to say when a single atom of that
same radium will disintegrate. Primo Levi
1221 Patience was still needed, in unforeseeable doses; yet more patience. Primo Levi
1220
This company looks cheap, that company looks cheap, but the overall economy
could completely screw it up. The key is to wait. Sometimes the hardest thing to do
is to do nothing. David Tepper
1219 A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. Ralph Waldo Emerson
1218 Give me a horse I can ride! John Facenda
1217
Sometimes the opportunities are so obvious that you almost can't lose when they
come around; the only problem is that they don't come around that often. The key
is not to lose money in the times in between. Stuart Walton
1216
My philosophy is to float like a jellyfish and let the market push me where it wants
to go. I don't draw a line in the sand and say this is my strategy and I'm going to
wait for the market to come to me. I try to figure out what strategies are working in
the market. Stuart Walton
1215
To me, the successful stock is not one that I bought at 10 and held to a 100, but
one where I picked up 7 points here, 5 points here, another 8 here, and caught a
major part of the move. Stuart Walton
1214
The theme I noticed back then that has persisted through bull and bear markets is:
Good companies, on balance, continue to go up. Grandmothers in Kansas City
know that. Stuart Walton
1213
I really admire people who do what they want to do and don't care about anything
else. I had a friend in college who was determined to be a rock and roll star. He
formed the band The Cowboy Junkies. When he started college, he couldn't even
play a guitar, and now he is sold out at every concert. Stuart Walton
1212
There is timing in the whole life of the warrior, in his thriving and declining, in his
harmony and discord. Similarly, there is timing in the Way of the merchant, in the
rise and fall of capital. All things entail rising and falling timing. You must be able to
discern this. In strategy there are various timing considerations. From the outset
you must know the applicable timing and the inapplicable timing, and from among
the large and small things and the fast and slow timings find the relevant timing,
first seeing the distance timing and the background timing. This is the main thing in
strategy. It is especially important to know the background timing, otherwise your
strategy will become uncertain. Miyamoto Musashi
1211
Management of one's emotional state is critical. The truly exceptional traders can
stand up to anything. Instead of getting emotional when things don't go their way,
they remain calm and act in accordance with their approach. Charles Faulkner
1210
People need to have a perceptual filter that matches the way they think. The
appropriate perceptual filter for a trader has more to do with how well it fits a
trader's mental strategy, his mode of thinking and decision making, than how well it
accounts for market activity. When a person gets to know any perceptual filter
deeply, it helps develop his or her intuition. There's no substitute for experience. Charles Faulkner
1209 Today's mistake is tomorrow's insight. Jack Sparrow
1208
Capitalism, then, is by nature a form or method of economic change and not only
never is but never can be stationary...The opening up of new markets, foreign or
domestic, and the organizational development from the craft shop and factory to
such concerns as US Steel illustrate the same process of industrial mutation — if I
may use that biological term — that incessantly revolutionizes the economic
structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a
new one. This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about
capitalism. Joseph Schumpeter
1207
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was. Same as it ever was, and look where
my hand was. Time isn't holding us, and time isn't after us. Same as it ever was,
same as it ever was... Talking Heads
1206
What we've got here is... failure to communicate. Some men, you just can't reach.
So you get what we had here last week. Which is the way he wants it. Well, he
gets it. And I don't like it any more than you men. Cool Hand Luke
1204
In a nutshell, if you're too conservative, you won't do any trades, and if you're too
aggressive, you're going to get picked off a lot. The trick is to try to strike a balance
between the two. Jeff Yass
1203
Just by watching markets, I noticed that prices tend to come down much harder
and faster than they go up. Jeff Yass
1202
...the poker world is so competitive that if you don't fully capitalize on every
advantage, you're not going to survive. I absolutely understood that concept by the
time I got down to the options floor. I learned more about options trading strategy
by playing poker than I did in all my college economics courses combined. Jeff Yass
1201
We actually use poker strategy in training our option traders, because we feel the
parallels are very strong. I believe that if I can teach our trainees the correct way to
think about poker, I can teach them the right way to trade options. Jeff Yass
1200
There are very few people who can develop the skills to get the edge, and far
fewer still who can withstand the losses emotionally and still stick with the system.
Probably only one in five hundred people has the necessary discipline to be
successful. Blair Hull
1199
The people who want to be recognized as the greatest traders are probably not the
greatest traders. Egos get in the way of the process. In my opinion, you never want
to be the largest player in the pit. Blair Hull
1198
In a sense, I owe everything that I have to the state of Nevada. It not only provided
me with my original trading stake, but the betting experience taught me a lot of
things that allowed me to become a successful trader. Blair Hull
1197
If you get too careful about not risking your gains, you're not going to be able to
extract a large profit. Mark Ritchie
1196
You need to have the courage to stand up against the crowd, decide your position,
and execute it. Mark Ritchie
1195
Magnitude of losses and profits is purely a matter of position size. Controlling
position size is indispensable to success. Of all the traits necessary to trade
successfully, this factor is the most undervalued. Mark Ritchie
1194
Understand that learning the markets can take years. Immerse yourself in the
world of trading and give up everything else. Get as close to other successful
traders as you can.
Linda Bradford
Raschke
1193 Fall down seven times, stand up eight. Japanese Proverb
1192
Part of the trading process is testing the water. If your entry timing is good enough,
you won't lose much even when you're wrong.
Linda Bradford
Raschke
1191
I think investment psychology is by far the most important element, followed by risk
control, with the least important consideration being the question of where you buy
and sell. Tom Basso
1190
I liken emotions in trading to a spring, with emotions being stretched up and down,
up and down. While it's going up and down, it's kind of thrilling, but eventually the
spring wears out. Burnout sets in, and you realize that maybe it isn't so much fun
to be on this emotional roller coaster. You find that if you can just keep your
emotions in balance in the middle, it's actually a whole lot more fun. Tom Basso
1189
I'm fond of thinking of trading in terms of scores of years. If I live long enough, I'll
trade for fifty or sixty years. I figure that, over that time span, I'll see devastating
declines, spectacular advances that I virtually can't believe, and everything in
between. Tom Basso
1188
After my years of experience in the markets, I now try to keep my models as
flexible as I possibly can. I try to imagine scenarios that would almost make good
movie plots. Tom Basso
1187
I know this will sound like a cliche, but the single most important reason that
people lose money in financial markets is that they don't cut their losses short. It is
a curiosity of human nature that no matter how many books talk about this rule,
and no matter how many experts offer this advice, people still keep making the
same mistake. Victor Sperandeo
1186
We are still a multimedia organism. If we want to push the envelope of complexity
further, we have to use all of our devices for accessing information — not all of
which are rational.
Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi
1185
The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows
inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved,
and you're using your skills to the utmost.
Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi
1184
Choiceless awareness is a quality of mind that is free from making judgments,
decisions or generating commentary as it meets with sense experiences. It is a
mind that responds to each new moment without the burden of its past history or
making future projections. Matthew Flickstein
1183
To watch the behavior of a man who acts not according to reason, but according to
his own deep impulses, is a spectacle of extreme interest, similar to that which the
naturalist enjoys when he studies the activities of an animal of complex instincts. Primo Levi
1182
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with
fools. Herbert Spencer
1181
In my opinion, the greatest misconception is the idea that if you buy and hold
stocks for long periods of time, you'll always make money. Victor Sperandeo
1180
In trading, you can't hide your failures. Your equity provides a daily reflection of
your performance. The trader who tries to blame his losses on external events will
never learn from his mistakes. Victor Sperandeo
1179
The key to trading success is emotional discipline. Making money has nothing to
do with intelligence. Think of all the bright people that choose careers on Wall
Street. If intelligence were the key, there would be a lot more people making
money trading. Victor Sperandeo
1178
Successful speculation implies taking risk when the odds are in your favor. Just
like in poker, where you have to know which hands to bet on, in trading you have
to know when the odds are in your favor. Victor Sperandeo
1177
The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas-
covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away, and think this
to be normal, is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to
be. Douglas Adams
1176
A trading philosophy is something that cannot just be transferred from one person
to another, it's something that you have to acquire yourself through time and effort. Richard Driehaus
1175
The essential element is having a core philosophy. Without a core philosophy
you're not going to be able to hold on to your positions or stick with your trading
plan during really difficult times. You must fully understand, strongly believe in, and
be totally committed to your trading philosophy. Richard Driehaus
1174
Most people believe high turnover is risky, but I think just the opposite. High
turnover reduces risk when it's the result of taking a series of small losses in order
to avoid larger losses. I don't hold on to stocks with deteriorating fundamentals or
price patterns. For me, this kind of turnover makes sense. It reduces risk; it doesn't
increase it. Richard Driehaus
1173
The wonderful thing about our business is that it's liquid, and you can wipe the
slate clean on any day. As long as I'm in control of the situation — that is, as long
as I can cover my positions — there's no reason to be nervous. Stan Druckenmiller
1172
In secular bear markets, fighting general conditions is an expensive habit. Wall
Street is addicted to this habit by design. Jack Sparrow
1171 Survive and advance. Jim Valvano
1170
The more extensive a man's knowledge of what has been done, the greater will be
his power of knowing what to do. Benjamin Disraeli
1169 The secret of success is constancy of purpose. Benjamin Disraeli
1168 Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes. Benjamin Disraeli
1167 What we learn from history is that we do not learn from history. Benjamin Disraeli
1166
Wall Street ices the inefficient cake with compulsive conformity. Everyone gets on
the bandwagon and stays until the evidence is too compelling, then they all fall off
with a jolt.
The Art of Short
Selling
1165
Soros has taught me that when you have tremendous conviction on a trade, you
have to go for the jugular. It takes courage to be a pig. It takes courage to ride a
profit with huge leverage. As far as Soros is concerned, when you're right on
something, you can't own enough. Stan Druckenmiller
1164
I've learned many things from [George Soros], but perhaps the most significant is
that it's not whether you're right or wrong that's important, but how much money
you make when you're right and how much you lose when you're wrong. The few
times that Soros has ever criticized me was when I was really right on a market
and didn't maximize the opportunity. Stan Druckenmiller
1163
The way to attain truly superior long-term returns is to grind it out until you're up 30
or 40 percent, and then if you have the convictions, go for a 100 percent year. If
you can put together a few near-100 percent years and avoid down years, then
you can achieve really outstanding long-term returns. Stan Druckenmiller
1162
George Soros has a philosophy that I have also adopted: The way to build long-
term returns is through preservation of capital and home runs. You can be far more
aggressive when you're making good profits. Stan Druckenmiller
1161
I never use valuation to time the market. I use liquidity considerations and
technical analysis for timing. Valuation only tells me how far the market can go
once a catalyst enters the picture to change the market direction. Stan Druckenmiller
1160
Frankly, even today, many analysts still don't know what makes their stocks go up
or down. Stan Druckenmiller
1159
The essential element is that the markets are ultimately based on human
psychology, and by charting the markets you're merely converting human
psychology into graphic representations. Al Weiss
1157
The most liquid period is the opening. Liquidity starts falling off pretty quickly after
the opening. The second most liquid time of day is the close. Trading volume
typically forms a U-shaped curve throughout the day. There's a lot of liquidity right
at the opening, it then falls off, reaching a nadir at midday, and then it starts to
climb back up, reaching a secondary peak on the close. Generally speaking, this
pattern holds in almost every market. It's actually pretty amazing. Monroe Trout
1156
The desire to maximize the number of winning trades (or minimize the number of
losing trades) works against the trader. The success rate of trades is the least
important performance statistic and may even be inversely related to performance. William Eckhardt
1155
The market behaves much like an opponent who is trying to teach you to trade
poorly... The market likes to lull you into the false security of high success rate
techniques, which often lose disastrously in the long run. The general idea is that
what works most of the time is nearly the opposite of what works in the long run. William Eckhardt
1154
When you're on a big winning streak, there's a temptation to think that you're doing
something special, which will allow you to continue to propel yourself upward. You
start to think that you can afford to make shoddy decisions. You can imagine what
happens next. As a general rule, losses make you strong and profits make you
weak. William Eckhardt
1153
While amateurs go broke by taking large losses, professionals go broke by taking
small profits. The problem in a nutshell is that human nature does not operate to
maximize gain but rather to maximize the chance of a gain. William Eckhardt
1152
One common adage on this subject that is completely wrongheaded is: You can't
go broke taking profits. That's precisely how many traders do go broke. William Eckhardt
1151
Watch idly while profit-taking opportunities arise, but in adversity run like a
jackrabbit. William Eckhardt
1150
Anyone with average intelligence can learn to trade. This is not rocket science.
However, it's much easier to learn what you should do in trading than to do it.
Good systems tend to violate normal human tendencies. Of the people who can
learn the basics, only a small percentage will be successful traders. William Eckhardt
1149 To conquer fate, go ahead and meet it. Dickson G. Watts
1148
I haven't seen much correlation between good trading and intelligence. Some
outstanding traders are quite intelligent, but a few aren't. Many outstandingly
intelligent people are horrible traders. Average intelligence is enough. Beyond that,
emotional makeup is more important. William Eckhardt
1147
Trading size is one aspect you don't want to optimize. The optimum comes just
before the precipice. William Eckhardt
1146
The desire to find patterns is the same human quirk that convinces people that
there is validity in superstitions, or astrology, or fortune tellers. The successes are
much more startling than the failures. You remember the times when the oracle
really hit the nail on the head, and you tend to forget the cases in which the
prediction was ambiguous or wrong. William Eckhardt
1145
The human mind was made to create patterns. It will see patterns in random data.
A turn-of-the-century statistics book put it this way: 'Too fine an eye for pattern will
find it everywhere.' William Eckhardt
1144
As a general rule, be very skeptical of your results. The better a system looks, the
more adamant you should be in trying to disprove it. This idea goes very much
against human nature, which wants to make the historical performance of a system
look as good as possible. William Eckhardt
1143
The lack of intrinsic meaning of angles on a bar chart has significance even for
chart-oriented traders who do not employ angles. How sharply a trend slopes on a
chart is often a psychological consideration in making a trade. If you fall prey to
this influence, you're letting the chart maker's practical and aesthetic
considerations impinge on your trading. Any trend can be made to look either
gentle or steep by adjusting the price scale. William Eckhardt
1142
In general, the delicate tests that statisticians use to squeeze significance out of
marginal data have no place in trading. We need blunt statistical instruments,
robust techniques. William Eckhardt
1141
Sometimes the reason people lose is that they're not sufficiently selective. Upon
analysis, a trader may find that if he only concentrates on the trades that do well
and lets go of the other types of trades, he might actually be successful. Randy McKay
1140
One very interesting thing I've found is that virtually every successful trader I know
ultimately ended up with a trading style suited to his personality. Randy McKay
1139
When you're trading well, you have a better mental attitude. When you're trading
poorly, you start wishing and hoping. Instead of getting into trades you think will
work, you end up getting into trades you hope will work. Randy McKay
1138
The most important advice is to never let a loser get out of hand... I'll keep on
reducing my trading size as long as I'm losing. I've gone from trading as many as
three thousand contracts per trade to as few as ten when I was cold, and then
back again. Randy McKay
1137
One of the things I did that worked in those early years was analyzing every single
trade I made. Every day, I made copies of my cards and reviewed them at home.
Every trader is going to have tons of winners and losers. You need to determine
why the winners are winners and the losers are losers. Once you can figure that
out, you can become more selective in your trading and avoid those trades that are
more likely to be losers. Randy McKay
1136
You don't want to have a position before a move has started. You want to wait until
the move is already under way before you get into the market. Randy McKay
1135
The beginning of a price move is usually hard to trade because you're not sure
whether you're right about the direction of the trend. The end is hard because
people start taking profits and the market gets very choppy. The middle of the
move is what I call the easy part. Randy McKay
1134
So many people want the positive rewards of being a successful trader without
being willing to go through the commitment and pain. And there's a lot of pain. Bill Lipschutz
1133
It's not enough to simply have the insight to see something apart from the rest of
the crowd, you also need to have the courage to act on it and to stay with it. It's
very difficult to be different from the rest of the crowd the majority of the time,
which by definition is what you're doing if you're a successful trader. Bill Lipschutz
1132
The really best traders don't think twice about how many hours they're working or
whether they come in on a weekend. There's no substitute for that level of
commitment. Bill Lipschutz
1131
[Superior] traders have tremendous commitment to the markets — to their craft, so
to speak. They develop scenarios, reevaluate scenarios, collect information, and
reevaluate that information. They constantly ask themselves: What am I doing
right? What am I doing wrong? How can I do what I am doing better? How can I
get more information? It's obsessive. Bill Lipschutz
1130
...playing out scenarios is something that I do all the time. That is a process a
fundamental trader goes through constantly. What if this happens? What if this
doesn't happen? How will the market respond? What levels will the market move
to? Bill Lipschutz
1129
I don't have a problem letting my profits run, which many traders do. You have to
be able to let your profits run. I don't think you can consistently be a winning trader
if you're banking on being right more than 50 percent of the time. Bill Lipschutz
1128
You have to trade at a size such that if you're not exactly right in your timing, you
won't be blown out of your position. My approach is to build to a larger size as the
market is going my way. Bill Lipschutz
1127
Foreign exchange is a very psychological market... if you move the market 4
percent, for example, you're probably going to change the market psychology for
the next few days. Bill Lipschutz
1126
When you're in a losing streak, your ability to properly assimilate and analyze
information starts to become distorted because of the impairment of the confidence
factor, which is a by-product of a losing streak. You have to work very hard to
restore that confidence, and cutting back trading size helps achieve that goal. Bill Lipschutz
1125
There are a lot of elements to risk control: Always know exactly where you stand.
Don't concentrate too much of your money on one big trade or group of highly
correlated trades. Always understand the risk-reward of the trade as it now stands,
not as it existed when you put the position on. Bill Lipschutz
1124
Not everyone is going to interpret things in the same way, at the same time, as you
do, and it's important to understand that. You need to be plugged into the news
and to know what the market is looking at. For example, one day the foreign
exchange market may be focusing on interest rate differentials; the next day the
market may be looking at potential for capital appreciation, which is exactly the
opposite. Bill Lipschutz
1123
We cannot grow without challenge. Challenges routinely produce crises that
severely test us. However, crises also offer us the greatest opportunities. Steven Callahan
1122
...voyaging through wildernesses, be they full of woods or waves, is essential to
the growth and maturity of the human spirit. It is in the wilderness that you really
learn who you are. It is in facing the challenges of the wilderness that the thickness
of your wallet becomes irrelevant and your capabilities become the truer measure
of your value. Steven Callahan
1121
The freedom of the sea lures men, yet freedom does not come free. Its cost is the
loss of the security of life on land. When a storm is brewing, the sailor cannot
simply park his ship and walk away from it. He cannot hide within stone walls until
the whole thing blows over. There is no freedom from nature, the power that binds
even the dead together. Sailors are exposed to nature's beauty and her ugliness
more intensely than most men ashore. I have chosen the sailor's life to escape
society's restrictions and I have sacrificed its protection. I have chosen freedom
and I have paid the price.
Adrift: 76 Days Lost At
Sea
1120
The most appropriate description of man as differentiated from nonhuman beings
is: a being purposively struggling against the forces adverse to his life. Ludwig Von Mises
1119
There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement. For
an achievement does not settle anything permanently. We still have to prove our
worth anew each day; we have to prove that we are as good today as we were
yesterday. But when we have a valid alibi for not achieving anything we are fixed,
so to speak, for life. Eric Hoffer
1118 Most battles are won before they are ever fought.
General George S.
Patton
1117 Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. Anais Nin
1116
Reason's biological function is to preserve and promote life and to postpone its
extinction as long as possible. Thinking and acting are not contrary to nature; they
are, rather, the foremost features of man's nature. Ludwig Von Mises
1115
You've got to think about doing big things while you're doing small things, so all the
small things go in the right direction. Alvin Toffler
1114
When you really believe that trading is simply a probability game, concepts like
'right' and 'wrong' or 'win' and 'lose' no longer have the same significance. As a
result, your expectations will be in harmony with the possibilities. Mark Douglas
1113
How much heat can you stand? Money management is a thermostat — a control
system for risk that keeps your trading within the comfort zone. Gibbons Burke
1112
Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark
place where it leads. Erica Jong
1111
Take your life in your own hands and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to
blame. Erica Jong
1110 If you don't risk anything, you risk even more. Erica Jong
1109
The biggest cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid people are so
sure about things and the intelligent folks are so full of doubts. Bertrand Russell
1108 You will run out of money before a guru runs out of indicators. Neil Weintraub
1107 I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious. Albert Einstein
1106 Everyone's entitled to their own opinion, but they're not entitled to their own facts. Donald Rumsfeld
1105
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in
anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in
anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe
in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in
traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after
observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason, and is
conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it. Siddhartha Gautama
1104
500 fights, that's the number I figured when I was a kid. 500 street fights and you
could consider yourself a legitimate tough guy. You need 'em for experience. To
develop leather skin. So I got started. Of course, along the way you stop thinking
about being tough and all that. It stops being the point. You get past the silliness of
it all. But then, after, you realize that's what you are. Knockaround Guys
1103
If you can preserve your financial and mental capital when others have depleted or
squandered theirs, the long-term rewards will be great. Jack Sparrow
1102
The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but
those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. Alvin Toffler
1101 Reason is the main resource of man in his struggle for survival. Ludwig Von Mises
1100
It may be readily conceived that if men passionately bent upon physical
gratifications desire greatly, they are also easily discouraged; as their ultimate
object is to enjoy, the means to reach that object must be prompt and easy or the
trouble of acquiring the gratification would be greater than the gratification itself.
Their prevailing frame of mind, then, is at once ardent and relaxed, violent and
enervated. Death is often less dreaded by them than perseverance in continuous
efforts to one goal. Alexis de Tocqueville
1099 Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son. Animal House
1098
When I started writing I thought if I proved X was a stupid thing to do that people
would stop doing X. I was wrong. Bill James
1097
It seems LTCM could have survived one Nobel prize-winner, but with two, they
were doomed. Frederic Townsend
1096
The success of options valuation is the story of a simple, asymptotically correct
idea, taken more serious than it deserved, and then used extravagantly, with
hubris, as a crutch to human thinking. Emanuel Derman
1095 Success demands singleness of purpose. Vince Lombardi
1094
If all it took to beat the markets was a P.h.D in mathematics, there'd be a hell of a
lot of rich mathematicians out there. Bil Dries
1093
The class of those who have the ability to think their own thoughts is separated by
an unbridgeable gulf from the class of those who cannot. Ludwig Von Mises
1092 It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1091 Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth. Ludwig Borne
1090
Portfolio structuring, risk management, execution strategies, capital management,
and leverage management may not be directly connected to the algorithm that
generates the buy and sell signals, but they are all hugely important. Bruce Cleland
1089
The mathematics are very important, but it's only one piece of the puzzle. The
most important thing overall is the total investment process, of which the signal
generator is an important part. Bruce Cleland
1088 Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so. Galileo Galilei
1087
The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength,
not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will. Vince Lombardi
1086
Pyramiding instructions appear on dollar bills. Add smaller and smaller amounts on
the way up. Keep your eye open at the top. Ed Seykota
1085 Everything flows. Heraclitus
1084 Life is a school of probability. Walter Bagehot
1083
We have made our business managing risk. We are comfortable with risk and we
get our reward from risk. John W. Henry
1082
Since investors are human and make mistakes, they're never 100% sure of their
vision and whether or not their view is correct. So price adjustments take time as
they fluctuate and a new consensus is formed in the face of changing market
conditions and new facts. For some changes this consensus is easy to reach, but
there are other events that take time to formulate a market view. It's those events
that take time that form the basis of our profits. John W. Henry
1081 Man's expectations manifest in trends. John W. Henry
1080 Money management is the true survival key. Bill Dunn
1079 The beginning is the most important part of the work. Plato
1078 Free markets will always find their own means of price discovery. Keith Campbell
1077
Government regulation and intervention have been, are, and will continue to be
present for as long as society needs rules by which to live. Today's governmental
intervention or decree is tomorrow's opportunity. Keith Campbell
1076
The people that I know who are the most successful at trading are passionate
about it. They fulfill what I think is the first requirement: developing intuitions about
something they care about deeply, in this case, trading... They develop a deep
knowledge of whatever form of analysis they use. Out of that passion and
knowledge, their trading ideas, insights, and intuitions emerge. Charles Faulkner
1075
My dear, one can make just as much money from the destruction of a civilization
as from the building of it. Gone With the Wind
1074
There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more
uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of
things. Niccolo Machiavelli
1073
Speculation [is] dealing with the uncertain conditions of the unknown future. Every
human action is a speculation in that it is embedded in the flux of time. Ludwig Von Mises
1072
To be aware how fruitful the playful mood can be is to be immune to the
propaganda of the alienated, which extols resentment as a fuel of achievement. Eric Hoffer
1071 Fish see the bait, but not the hook; men see the profit, but not the peril. Chinese proverb
1070
Education rears disciples, imitators, and routinists, not pioneers of new ideas and
creative geniuses. The schools are not nurseries of progress and improvement,
but conservatories of tradition and unvarying modes of thought. Ludwig Von Mises
1069
You have to stop trying to will things to happen in order to prove that you're right.
Listen only to what the market is telling you now. Forget what you thought it was
telling you five minutes ago. The sole objective of trading is not to prove you're
right, but to hear the cash register ring. Marty Schwartz
1068
Trading is a psychological game. Most people think that they're playing against the
market, but the market doesn't care. You're really playing against yourself. Marty Schwartz
1067
If the market gets negative news and the market shrugs it off and it continues to go
up, this is a bullish reaction because it means the market has already discounted
the news. On the other hand, a sign of a fully priced market is one that reacts
poorly to good news. Marty Schwartz
1066
Technical indicators that show me low-risk entry points for high probability trades
are at the core of my methodology. But I am always intensely searching for
patterns, setups, recurring themes, no matter how small, to help further swing the
odds in my favor on a given trade. Marty Schwartz
1065
When I was in the first grade, the teacher asked each of us what we wanted to be
when we grew up. I said, 'a detective.' This investigative nature has carried
through into adulthood. I love searching for clues, synthesizing tons of unrelated
data, and arriving at a logical conclusion. While these observations are not entirely
scientific, they are things I've seen repeatedly over the years. Marty Schwartz
1064
Your trading methodology has to fit your personality. You have to understand your
strengths and your weaknesses. It took me nine years to figure myself out. Marty Schwartz
1063
When you're in a losing position and you're brainlocked, do whatever's necessary
to help clear your head. Whether you're a pro or an amateur, you cannot lose your
objectivity. Marty Schwartz
1062
Wall Street doesn't want to see the emperor naked. He may be old and fat and
flabby, but they don't want to know it. They want to see him regal and royal in all
his majesty. And as long as they see him that way, that's the way he is, because
they keep on buying. Big ball keep on rolling. Marty Schwartz
1061
It behooves those who are genetically predisposed to a bearish position to
remember that markets have a logic of their own. John Mauldin
1060
Don't get in a shootout if you've left your guns at home. The markets are no place
to be trying to impress people. The only way to impress anybody is to stay on your
toes, be consistent, and trade within your means. Marty Schwartz
1059
When you're trading, it's important to have your guns on. You can't be wandering
around the Street unarmed, and if you don't know the terrain, you're going to get
killed. Marty Schwartz
1058
A great trader is like a great athlete. You have to have natural skills, but you have
to train yourself how to use them. Marty Schwartz
1057
You will never be more objective than before you execute a trade. Once you are in
a trade, emotions take over, so your plan must be in place beforehand. Marty Schwartz
1056
Trading must be addressed as a profession, because if you do not treat it as such,
those who do will separate you from your money very quickly. Marty Schwartz
1055 I went to a fight the other day and wound up trading futures in Chicago. Wall Street proverb
1054
The more you lose in a trade, the less objective you become. Exiting a losing trade
quickly clears your head and restores your objectivity. After a breather, you might
put the same trade back on if you can intellectually justify it, but you have to
constantly remind yourself that there's a myriad of opportunities in the
marketplace. By preserving your capital through the use of a stop, you make it
possible to wait patiently for a high-probability trade with a low-risk entry point. Marty Schwartz
1053
A stop automatically takes your brain out of reverse and puts it into neutral. Your
money's not back to neutral, but your mind's back to the point where you can
regroup and try to think up a fresh idea without the pressure of a losing position
hanging over your head. Marty Schwartz
1052
Whenever you have jealousy as an emotion, or greed, or envy, it distorts your
judgment. The market's like the bleached blonde in Vegas. It doesn't care about
you. That's why you have to put aside your ego and get out. If you have trouble
doing that, as most people do, be like Odysseus; tie yourself to the mast with an
automatic stop and take your emotions out of play. Marty Schwartz
1051
What most people fail to understand is that while you're losing your money, you're
also losing your objectivity. It's like being at the craps table in Vegas, and the fat
bleached blonde in the sequined dress is rolling the dice, and you're losing, and
you're determined that you're not going to let her beat you. What you've forgotten
is that she doesn't care about you, she's just rolling the dice. Marty Schwartz
1050
Taking a loss is hard to do because it's an admission that you've been wrong. But
in the market, being wrong some of the time is part of the game. On each trade,
you have to establish your 'uncle point,' the point where you'll get out of a losing
position, and you have to have the mental discipline to pull the trigger at that point. Marty Schwartz
1049 There's no cure for fools. Yojimbo
1048
Confidence is every part of trading. If you're not convinced that you can win, you
should never climb into the ring. Marty Schwartz
1047
For two hundred days a year, I'd end up with reasonably small losses netted out
with similar-sized gains. Lose $5,000 here, make $6,000 there, round after round,
twenty, thirty, forty times a day. But I'd win the other fifty trading days by clear-cut
unanimous decisions. Smack the bonds for $75,000, hit a stock for $100,000, nail
a couple of options for $125,000, pound the S&Ps for $150,000. Over time it made
me a big winner, to the tune of $5 million a year. Marty Schwartz
1046
The most important thing is to protect your trading capital until you can regain your
equilibrium and put all the shadows of the losing streak behind you. Losing streaks
are an unfortunate part of the game, but if you are a good disciplined trader who
can shift into neutral, the losing will end and black ink will start to flow again. Marty Schwartz
1045
When I came back, I'd see a trade I liked and I'd do it small with a very tight stop,
so if I was wrong, I'd get right out. All the time I kept telling myself, make little
profits, make little profits, make little profits. Black ink, black ink, black ink. It's all
psychological. Marty Schwartz
1044
You can never shift from reverse to first gear without going through neutral. You
must change the direction of bad trading by first shifting to neutral. You must stop. Marty Schwartz
1043
The best way to stop a losing streak is to stop! Stop the losses, stop the bleeding.
Take time off and let your intellect take charge of your emotions; the market will be
there when you return. Marty Schwartz
1042
The best way to end a losing streak is to cut your losses and divorce your ego from
the game... You have to manage your resources and not lose too much of your
stake. Many people when they're losing increase their bets; they double up hoping
to win it all back on one roll of the dice. That strategy can be devastating. Marty Schwartz
1041
When you're a market timer, you have to be equally good at going short and going
long, and when the market changes sides, you can't hold your position and hope it
turns around. If you're not a natural like Mickey Mantle, you've got to be a student
of the game like Rod Carew. Practice, practice, practice. Marty Schwartz
1040
Because we make and lose thousands of dollars every day, big-time traders often
give the appearance of treating money with an 'easy come, easy go' attitude.
That's not right. Just because we don't do the mashed potatoes over our wins or
whine about our losses doesn't mean that we take them casually. Marty Schwartz
1039
When you're trading real time, and things start popping, you're challenged to make
immediate decisions. You can't stand still, there's no time to think. It's attack or
retreat, increase the position or get out. Marty Schwartz
1038
That's the basic difference between an investor and a trader. A trader looks at the
market as one living, breathing organism instead of a collection of individual
stocks. Marty Schwartz
1037
The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge,
experience, and ability. Henry Ford
1036
I've found that people who are great at something are not so much convinced of
their own greatness as mystified at why everyone else seems so incompetent. Paul Graham
1034
Academic assertions that outperformance is impossible pose a useful sort of litmus
test. If one is cowed enough by the dogma to accept mediocrity as inevitable, then
one most likely lacks the drive, the talent or the intellect (or some combination of
the three) to achieve excellence in the first place. Jack Sparrow
1033 Develop a built-in bullshit detector. Ernest Hemingway
1032 Never mistake motion for action. Ernest Hemingway
1031 There is great disorder under heaven... the situation is excellent. Chairman Mao
1030
For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they
were realities. Niccolo Machiavelli
1029
The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires,
we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue. Chairman Mao
1028
The realization that you are responsible for the results you get is the key to
successful investing. Winners know they are responsible for their results; losers
think they are not. Van Tharp
1027
I'm not saying that controlling your mental state is the magic solution to trading
success. It's just part of the answer. But when you admit that the answer is within
yourself, you've come a long way. Van Tharp
1026
Always respect the marketplace. Never take anything for granted. Do your
homework. Recap the day. Figure out what you did right and what you did wrong.
That is one part of the homework; the other part is projective. What do I want to
happen tomorrow? What happens if the opposite occurs? What happens if nothing
happens? Think through all the 'what-ifs.' Anticipate and plan, rather than react. Tony Saliba
1025
Discipline is number one: Take a theory and stick with it. But you also have to be
open-minded enough to switch tracks if you feel that your theory has been proven
wrong. You have to be able to say, 'My method worked for this type of market, but
we are not in that type of market anymore.' Tony Saliba
1024
How do you lose money? It's either a bad day trading or a losing position. If it's a
bad position that is the problem, then you should just get out of it. Tony Saliba
1023
...the best traders have no ego. To be a great trader, you have to have a big
enough ego only in the sense that you have confidence in yourself. You cannot let
ego get in the way of a trade that is a loser; you have to swallow your pride and get
out. Tom Baldwin
1022
Trading is like any other job. You work hard, put in the time and effort, and make
your own luck. I was lucky that the first 100-lot I sold was a winner. But why was I
lucky? Because I stood there all day for over six months, developing and honing
market feeling. When the opportunity occurred, I didn't hesitate. Tom Baldwin
1021
Most important, losers don't work hard enough. Most people walk in and think
there is a 50/50 chance on any trade. They don't think there is anything more to it
than that. They don't concentrate. They don't watch the factors that affect the
market. You can see it in their eyes; it is almost as if there is a wall in front of their
face. Tom Baldwin
1020 I'm not afraid to lose. When you start being afraid to lose, you're finished. Brian Gelber
1019
Most traders who fail have large egos and can't admit that they are wrong. Even
those who are willing to admit that they are wrong early in their career can't admit it
later on. Also, some traders fail because they are too worried about losing. Brian Gelber
1018
I'm not picky about how I make my money. It doesn't matter if my opinion is right or
wrong. All that matters is whether I make money. Brian Gelber
1017
I know educated people who watch the news and wonder why the hell they lost
money when everyone else is taking profits. The media owes it to the public to
report that the market goes down not only on profit taking, but on a lot of loss
taking as well. Mark Weinstein
1016
You have to learn how to lose; it is more important than learning how to win. If you
think you are always going to be a winner, when you lose, you will develop feelings
of hostility and end up blaming the market instead of trying to learn why you lost. Mark Weinstein
1015
Your strategy has to be flexible enough to change when the environment changes.
The mistake most people make is they keep the same strategy all the time. They
say, 'Damn, the market didn't behave the way I thought it would.' Why should it?
Life and the markets just don't work that way. Mark Weinstein
1014
Don't trade until an opportunity presents itself. Knowing when to stay out of the
markets is as important as knowing when to be in them. Mark Weinstein
1013 Be your own person. Think against the herd, as they must lose in time. Mark Weinstein
1012
Don't be arrogant. When you get arrogant, you forsake risk control. The best
traders are the most humble. Mark Weinstein
1011
Another item I would place under the category of misconceptions is the way the
media reports the reasons for the market being down. They are always saying the
market is down because of profit taking. I think it would be wonderful if everybody
was always taking profits. But, the truth is, most people lose money, and the
reason markets go down is because they take their losses. Mark Weinstein
1010
I don't try to figure out where the market is going before the action; I let the market
tell me where it is going. Also, there is such a variety of technical input in the stock
market... that you will almost always get a signal before the market is about to do
something. Mark Weinstein
1009
I am always looking for a market that is losing momentum, and then go the other
way. Mark Weinstein
1008
When I trade at home, I often watch the sparrows in my garden. When I feed them
bread, they take just a little piece at a time and fly away. They keep on flying back
and forth, taking small bits of bread. They may have to make a hundred stabs at a
piece of bread to get what a pigeon gets at one time, but that is why a pigeon is a
pigeon. You will never be able to shoot a sparrow, it is just too fast. Mark Weinstein
1007
Although the cheetah is the fastest animal in the world and can catch any animal
on the plains, it will wait until it is absolutely sure it can catch its prey. It may hide in
the bush for a week, waiting for just the right moment. It will wait for a baby
antelope, and not just any baby antelope, but preferably one that is also sick or
lame. Only then, when there is no chance it can lose its prey, does it attack. That,
to me, is the epitome of professional trading. Mark Weinstein
1006
Most people will not wait for the environment to tip itself off. They will walk into the
forest when it is still dark, while I wait until it gets light. Mark Weinstein
1005
My fear of the markets has forced me to hone my timing with great precision.
When I am trading properly, it is like a pool player running racks. If my gut feel of
market conditions is not right, I don't trade. Mark Weinstein
1004
I just wait until there is money lying in the corner, and all I have to do is go over
there and pick it up. I do nothing in the meantime. Even people who lose money in
the market say, 'I just lost my money, now I have to do something to make it back.'
No, you don't. You should sit there until you find something. Jim Rogers
1003
I always try to encourage people that are thinking of going into this business for
themselves. I tell them, 'Think that you might become more successful than you
ever dreamt, because that's what happened to me.' Marty Schwartz
1002
I always take my losses quickly. That is probably the key to my success. You can
always put the trade back on, but if you go flat, you see things differently. Marty Schwartz
1001
If you're ever very nervous about a position overnight, and especially over a
weekend, and you're able to get out at a much better price than you thought
possible when the market trades, you're usually better off staying with the position. Marty Schwartz
1000
The most important thing is money management, money management, money
management. Anybody who is successful will tell you the same thing. Marty Schwartz
999
The great thing about being a trader is that you can always do a much better job.
No matter how successful you are, you know how many times you screw up. Most
people, in most careers, are busy trying to cover up their mistakes. As a trader,
you are forced to confront your mistakes because the numbers don't lie. Marty Schwartz
998
After a devastating loss, I always play very small and try to get black ink, black ink.
It's not how much money I make, but just getting my rhythm and confidence back. I
shrink my size totally — to a fifth or a tenth of the position that I trade normally.
And it works. I think I ended up losing only $57,000 in November 1982, after taking
a $600,000 hit on November 4. Marty Schwartz
997
By living the philosophy that my winners are always in front of me, it is not so
painful to take a loss. If I make a mistake, so what! Marty Schwartz
996
Before, admitting I was wrong was more upsetting than losing the money. I used to
try to will things to happen. I figured it out, therefore it can't be wrong. When I
became a winner, I said, 'I figured it out, but if I'm wrong, I'm getting the hell out,
because I want to save my money and go on to the next trade. Marty Schwartz
995
My attitude is that I always want to be better prepared than someone I'm
competing against. The way I prepare myself is by doing my work each night. Marty Schwartz
994
If you try to learn from every single trade that you make, you are only going to get
better and better as time goes on. David Ryan
993
In physics you're playing against God, and he doesn't change his laws very often.
In finance you're playing against God's creatures, agents who value assets based
on their ephemeral opinions. They don't know when they've lost, so they keep
trying. Emanuel Derman
992 You need to be decisive, open-minded, flexible and competitive. Stan Druckenmiller
991 You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. Wayne Gretzky
990
The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day,
that I never dog it. Wayne Gretzky
989 I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been. Wayne Gretzky
988
The stock market is neither efficient nor random. It is not efficient because there
are too many poorly conceived opinions; it is not random because strong investor
emotions can create trends. William O' Neill
987
High volume at a key point is an extraordinarily valuable tip-off that a stock is ready
to move. Volume can also be used in a reverse manner. When prices enter a
consolidation after an advance, volume should dry up very substantially. In other
words, there should be very little selling coming into the market. During a
consolidation, declining volume is generally constructive. William O' Neill
986
Just as a doctor would be foolish not to use X-rays and EKGs, investors would be
foolish not to use charts. Charts provide valuable information about what is going
on that cannot be obtained easily any other way. They allow you to follow a huge
number of different stocks in an organized manner. William O' Neill
985
Letting losses run is the most serious mistake made by most investors. The public
doesn't really understand the philosophy of cutting losses quickly. William O' Neill
984
The secret for winning in the stock market does not include being right all the time.
In fact, you should be able to win even if you are right only half the time. The key is
to lose the least amount of money possible when you are wrong. William O' Neill
983
My philosophy is that all stocks are bad. There are no good stocks unless they go
up in price. If they go down instead, you have to cut your losses fast. William O' Neill
982
There should be a respect for the person on the other side of the trade. Always ask
yourself: Why does he want to sell? What does he know that I don't? Finally, you
have to be intellectually honest with yourself and others. In my judgment, all great
traders are seekers of truth. Michael Steinhardt
981
Good trading is a peculiar balance between the conviction to follow your ideas and
the flexibility to recognize when you have made a mistake. You need to believe in
something, but at the same time, you are going to be wrong a considerable
number of times. The balance between confidence and humility is best learned
through extensive experience and mistakes. Michael Steinhardt
980
The term professionally managed implies a credit I am not sure I would give the
average professional in this business. Michael Steinhardt
979
One of the allures of this business is that sometimes the greatest ignoramus can
do very well. That is unfortunate because it creates the impression that you don't
necessarily need any professionalism to do well, and that is a great trap. Michael Steinhardt
978
One of the advantages of trading the way I do — being a long-term investor, short-
term trader, individual stock selector, market timer, sector analyst — is that I have
made so many decisions and mistakes that it has made me wise beyond my years
as an investor. Michael Steinhardt
977
There is a very good investor I speak to frequently who said, 'All I bring to the party
is twenty-eight years of mistakes.' I really believe he is right. When you make a
mistake, there is some subconscious phenomenon that makes it less likely for you
to make that same mistake again. Michael Steinhardt
976
We went short Polaroid when it was selling at sixty times earnings, which we
thought was absurd; it then went to seventy times earnings. The market seemed to
lose track of reality, and we found ourselves asking, 'What is the difference
between forty times earnings and eighty times earnings?' By putting a different
number on the secular growth rate estimate, you could justify almost any multiple.
That is how people were thinking in those days. Michael Steinhardt
975
There is a very important difference between being a theoretical contrarian and
dealing with it in practical terms. In order to win as a contrarian, you need the right
timing and you have to put on a position in the appropriate size. If you do it too
small, it's not meaningful; if you do it too big, you can get wiped out if your timing is
slightly off. The process requires courage, commitment, and an understanding of
your own psychology. Michael Steinhardt
974
As soon as a formula is right for any length of time, its own success carries the
weight of its inevitable failure. Michael Steinhardt
973
Good traders know that opportunistic speculation is a process. Ignore any one
single outcome, focus on the methodology that can consistently avoid catastrophic
losses, manage risk, preserve capital. A good process can be replicated, a random
spin of the wheel cannot. Barry Ritholtz
972
Evolution is not a conscious process. It is a winnowing out of the poorly designed
and emergence of the better designed on the basis of the process of natural
selection. In contrast, in finance the process is conscious and intelligent. Richard Bookstaber
971
A better analogy than physics or biology is a military one. The point is that there is
a strategy of intelligent reaction to any action, an arms race to leapfrog one
another in information gathering and technology, to know what others are doing,
and to react in a way that they will not anticipate. This is the point where I could
pull out quotes from The Art of War about seeing into the mind of the enemy,
attacking when your opponent believes you will retreat, and the like. That is not
physics. Richard Bookstaber
970
You can't build in a feedback or reactive model, because you don't know what to
model. And if you do know — by the time you know — the odds are the market has
changed. That is the whole point of what makes a trader successful — he can see
things in ways most others do not, anticipate in ways others cannot, and then
change his behavior when he starts to see others catching on. Richard Bookstaber
969
[Poker is] a very simple game; a five-year-old can learn it. But it's also highly
mathematical. If you never play someone on the next level, you don’t even know
that level exists. It's almost another dimension. Chip Reese
968
I have two basic rules about winning in trading as well as in life: (1) If you don't bet,
you can't win. (2) If you lose all your chips, you can't bet. Larry Hite
967
When I was a kid and got my first motorcycle, I had an older friend who would
always get into fights. He told me, 'Larry, when you are on a motorcycle, never
argue with a car. You will lose.' The same lesson applies to trading: If you argue
with the market, you will lose. Larry Hite
966
There are really four kinds of trades or bets: good bets, bad bets, winning bets,
and losing bets. Most people think that a losing trade was a bad bet. That is
absolutely wrong. You can lose money even on a good bet. If the odds on a bet
are 50/50 and the payoff is $2 versus a $1 risk, that is a good bet even if you lose.
The important point is that if you do enough of those trades or bets, eventually you
have to come out ahead. Larry Hite
965
Risk is a no-fooling-around game; it does not allow for mistakes. If you do not
manage the risk, eventually they will carry you out. Larry Hite
964
I have a friend who has amassed a fortune in excess of $100 million. He taught me
two basic lessons. First, if you never bet your lifestyle, from a trading standpoint,
nothing bad will ever happen to you. Second, if you know what the worst possible
outcome is, it gives you tremendous freedom. The truth is that, while you can't
quantify reward, you can quantify risk. Larry Hite
963
There is a very important message here: People don't change. That is why this
whole game works. Larry Hite
962
I have a friend who is an economist. He would try to explain to me, as if talking to a
child, why what I was trying to do was futile, because 'the markets are efficient.' I
have noticed that everyone who has ever told me that the markets are efficient is
poor. Larry Hite
961
For some reason, the idea of trading on 5 percent margin made perfect sense to
me. Larry Hite
960
I know several people who claim to have market insights during dreams. I think
one of the functions of dreams is to reconcile information and feelings which the
conscious mind finds intractable. Ed Seykota
959
It is a happy coincidence that when nature gives us true burning desires, she also
gives us the means to satisfy them. Those who want to win and lack skill can get
someone with skill to help them. Ed Seykota
958
It's not how close you get to the ground, but how precise can you fly the airplane. If
you feel so careless with your life that you want to be the world's lowest flying
aviator, then you might do it for a while — but then a great many former friends of
mine are no longer with us, simply because they cut their margins too close. Bob Hoover
957 There are few activities so enlightening as to read old books with new eyes. Jack Sparrow
956
Trading is a curious mix of mostly going with the flow, yet knowing when to
selectively fade the flow. Jack Sparrow
955 Being contrarian at the wrong time is akin to arguing with a herd of cattle. Jack Sparrow
954
I think that if people look deeply enough into their trading patterns, they find that,
on balance, including all their goals, they are really getting what they want, even
though they may not understand it or want to admit it. Ed Seykota
953
Win or lose, everybody gets what they want out of the market. Some people like to
lose, so they win by losing money. Ed Seykota
952
Psychology motivates the quality of analysis and puts it to use. Psychology is the
driver and analysis is the road map. Ed Seykota
951
A losing trader can do little to transform himself into a winning trader. A losing
trader is not going to want to transform himself. That's the kind of thing winning
traders do. Ed Seykota
950
[Traders fail] for the same reason that most baby turtles fail to reach maturity:
Many are called and few are chosen. Society works by the attraction of the many.
As they are culled out, the good ones are left, and the others are released to go try
something else until they find their calling. The same is true for other fields of
pursuit. Ed Seykota
949
One alternative [to expensive drama] is to keep bets small and then to
systematically keep reducing risk during equity drawdowns. That way you
approach your safe money asymptotically and have a gentle emotional and
financial touchdown. Ed Seykota
948
The joy of winning and the pain of losing are right up there with the pain of winning
and the joy of losing. Also to consider are the joy and pain of not participating. The
relative strengths of these feelings tend to increase with the distance of the trader
from his commitment to being a trader. Ed Seykota
947
'Luck' or 'smarts' or 'gift' are words indicating an attitudinal proclivity for mastery.
One tends to do well at one's calling. I think most good traders have a little extra
spark about trading. Ed Seykota
946
Luck plays an enormous role in trading success. Some people were lucky enough
to be born smart, while others were even smarter and got born lucky. Ed Seykota
945
Good traders have a special talent for trading just as good musicians and good
athletes have talents for their fields. Great traders are ones who are absorbed by
the talent. They don't have the talent — the talent has them. Ed Seykota
944
Gold tends to be dug up, refined, and then buried again. The geographical entropy
of all gold on the planet seems to decrease over time. A lot has been collected in
vaults. I project the trend as one toward a central world gold stash. Ed Seykota
943
Inflation is part of the way societies sweep away the old order. All currencies
eventually get debased — like it or not. Compute one penny invested at the time of
Christ, compounded at 3 percent per year. Then consider why nobody has
anywhere near that amount these days. Ed Seykota
942
The stock market behaves differently from itself in that easily identifiable patterns
seldom exactly repeat. Ed Seykota
941 A lot of people would rather understand the market than make money. Ed Seykota
940
Common patterns transcend individual market behavior. For example, bond prices
have a lot in common with the way cockroaches crawl up and down a wall.
Unfortunately for cockroach followers, there is usually no one around to take the
other side of a trade. Ed Seykota
939
Experienced traders can be very supportive just by being there for sharing joys
and sorrows. Ed Seykota
938
The markets are the same now as they were five to ten years ago because they
keep changing — just like they did then. Ed Seykota
937
Charting is a little like surfing. You don't have to know a lot about the physics of the
tides, resonance, and fluid dynamics in order to catch a good wave. You just have
to be able to sense when it's happening and then have the drive to act at the right
time. Ed Seykota
936 Be sensitive to the subtle differences between 'intuition' and 'into wishing.' Ed Seykota
935
Gut feel is important. If ignored, it may come out in subtle ways by coloring your
logic. It can be dealt with through meditation and reflection to determine what's
behind it. If it persists, then it might be a valuable subconscious analysis of some
subtle information. Otherwise, it might be a dangerous sublimation of an inner
desire for excitement and not reflect market conditions. Ed Seykota
934
I don't think traders can follow rules very long unless they reflect their own trading
style. Eventually, a breaking point is reached and the trader has to quit or change,
or find a new set of rules he can follow. This seems to be part of the process of
evolution and growth as a trader. Ed Seykota
933
Mostly I follow the rules. As I keep studying the markets, I sometimes find a new
rule which breaks and then replaces a previous rule. Sometimes I get to a personal
breakpoint. When that happens, I get out of the markets altogether and take a
vacation until I feel that I am ready to follow the rules again. Perhaps some day, I
will have a more explicit rule for breaking rules. Ed Seykota
932
I feel my success comes from my love of the markets. I am not a casual trader. It is
my life. I have a passion for trading. It is not merely a hobby or even a career
choice for me. There is no question that this is what I am supposed to do with my
life. Ed Seykota
931 Losing a position is aggravating, whereas losing your nerve is devastating. Ed Seykota
930
I set protective stops at the same time I enter a trade. I normally move these stops
in to lock in a profit as the trend continues. Sometimes, I take profits when a
market gets wild. This usually doesn't get me out any better than waiting for my
stops to close in, but it does cut down on the volatility of the portfolio, which helps
calm my nerves. Ed Seykota
929 I am a self-taught trader who is continually studying both myself and other traders. Ed Seykota
928
Psychologically, I tend to alter my activity depending on performance. I tend to be
more aggressive after I have been winning, and less so after losses. These
tendencies seem OK. In contrast, a costly tendency is to get emotional over a loss
and then try to get even with an overly large position. Ed Seykota
927
The elements of good trading are: (1) cutting losses, (2) cutting losses, and (3)
cutting losses. If you can follow these three rules, you may have a chance. Ed Seykota
926
I prefer not to dwell on past situations. I tend to cut bad trades as soon as possible,
forget them, and then move on to new opportunities. Ed Seykota
925 You mustn't hesitate to dream a little bigger darling. Inception
924
Dramatic and emotional trading experiences tend to be negative. Pride is a great
banana peel, as are hope, fear, and greed. My biggest slip-ups occurred shortly
after I got emotionally involved with positions. Ed Seykota
923
If I am bullish, I neither buy on a reaction, nor wait for strength; I am already in. I
turn bullish at the instant my buy stop is hit, and stay bullish until my sell stop is hit.
Being bullish and not being long is illogical. Ed Seykota
922
Fundamentals that you read about typically are useless as the market has already
discounted the price, and I call them 'funny-mentals.' However, if you catch on
early, before others believe, then you might have valuable 'surprise-a-mentals.' Ed Seykota
921
The profitability of trading systems seems to move in cycles. Periods during which
trend-following systems are highly successful will lead to their increased popularity.
As the number of system users increases, and the markets shift from trending to
directionless price action, these systems become unprofitable, and
undercapitalized and inexperienced traders will get shaken out. Longevity is the
key to success. Ed Seykota
920
All trading is done on some sort of system, whether or not it is conscious. Many of
the good systems are based on following trends. Life itself is based on trends.
Birds start south for the winter and keep on going. Companies track trends and
alter their products accordingly. Tiny protozoa move in trends along chemical and
luminescence gradients. Ed Seykota
919
Systems trading is ultimately discretionary. The manager still has to decide how
much risk to accept, which markets to play, and how aggressively to increase and
decrease the trading as a function of equity change. These decisions are quite
important — often more important than trade timing. Ed Seykota
918
Striking a workable ecology seems to promote trading longevity, which is one key
to success. Ed Seykota
917
The key to long-term survival and prosperity has a lot to do with the money
management techniques incorporated into the technical system. There are old
traders and there are bold traders, but there are very few old, bold traders. Ed Seykota
916
Systems don't need to be changed. The trick is for a trader to develop a system
with which he is compatible. Ed Seykota
915
If I can help somebody, fine. That's the whole idea. I feel in my heart that nobody in
this game ever devoted more concentration to the batter's box than Theodore
Samuel Williams, a guy who practiced until the blisters bled, and loved doing it,
and got more delight out of examining by conversation and observation the art of
hitting the ball. If that does not qualify me, nothing will. Ted Williams
914
A sense of humor... is needed armor. Joy in one's heart and some laughter on
one's lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life. Hugh Sidey
913
I have always tried to keep the concept of patience in mind by waiting for the right
trade, just like you wait for the percentage hand in poker. Gary Bielfeldt
912
When more of the cards are on the table and you have a very strong hand — in
other words, when you feel the percentages are skewed in your favor — you raise
and play that hand to the hilt. Gary Bielfeldt
911
Most traders have a tendency to take risks that are too large at the beginning.
They tend not to be selective enough about when they take risks. Gary Bielfeldt
910
If a 260-pound fullback is running through the line and a 175-pound linebacker has
to stop him, he has to have the courage to go into him. You need that kind of
courage to be able to participate in the markets. Gary Bielfeldt
909
By having thought out your objective and having a strategy for getting out in case
the market trend changes, you greatly increase the potential for staying with your
winning positions. Gary Bielfeldt
908
The best way I know to learn discipline and patience is to think through a trade
thoroughly before putting it on. You need to develop a plan of your strategies for
various contingencies. That way, you won't get swayed by every news item that
hits the market and causes prices to move up or down. Gary Bielfeldt
907
The most important thing is to have a method for staying with your winners and
getting rid of your losers. Gary Bielfeldt
906
Whenever too many people are doing the same thing, the market will go through a
period of adjustment. Gary Bielfeldt
905
The best thing anyone can do when starting out is to learn how a trend system
works... If you can just learn discipline by using a trend-following system, even
temporarily, it will increase your odds of being a successful trader. Gary Bielfeldt
904
There is nothing worse than a really bad trading day. You feel so low that it is
difficult to hold your head up. But, if I knew that I could also have a similar
experience in the exhilaration of winning, I would take the combination of winning
and losing days any time because you feel that much more alive. Trading gives
you an incredibly intense feeling of what life is all about. Paul Tudor Jones
903
It's not that we had any unfair knowledge that other people didn't have, it is just
that we did our homework. People just don't want to believe that anyone can break
away from the crowd and rise above mediocrity. Paul Tudor Jones
902
The trading experience is so intense that there is a natural tendency to want to
avoid thinking about it once the day is over. I am that way when things are
working. But, when they are not, it spurs me to want to think about what I'm doing
and how I might do better. When things go bad, traders shouldn't stick their heads
in the sand and just hope it gets better. Richard Dennis
901
On any individual trade it is almost all luck. It is just a matter of statistics. If you
take something that has a 53 percent chance of working each time, over the long
run there is a 100 percent chance of it working. Richard Dennis
900
I always say that you could publish trading rules in the newspaper and no one
would follow them. The key is consistency and discipline. Richard Dennis
899
...so many people would make incredibly bad trades just to take a profit. They
would get out even though the market was locked limit-up and almost sure to go
up the next day. They couldn't stand the profits burning a hole in their pocket. Richard Dennis
898 When you are getting beat to death, get your head out of the mixer. Richard Dennis
897
There are a lot of people who get imprinted like ducks. You can teach them that a
warship is their mother if you get them young enough. For a lot of traders, it
doesn't matter so much whether their first big trade is successful or not, but
whether their first big profit is on the long or short side. Those people tend to be
perennial bulls or bears, and that is very bad. Both sides have to be equally OK. Richard Dennis
896
What you can't afford to do is throw away your capital on suboptimal trades. If you
do, you will be too debilitated to trade when the right position comes along. Even if
you put the trade on, it will be relatively small because your capital will have been
depleted by the other trades. Richard Dennis
895
After all is said and done, you have to minimize your losses and try to preserve
capital for those few instances when you can make a lot in a very short period of
time. Richard Dennis
894
If there is one thing that is singularly responsible for the abysmal returns of the
S&P 500... it is the ludicrous set of valuation 'models' that Wall Street has
repeatedly foisted onto an uninformed public in order to sell them on the notion
that dangerously overvalued markets were actually 'cheap.' Knowledge is your
best defense. Valuation matters. John Hussman
893
In the absence of historical evidence, people can say anything they want without
accountability. John Hussman
892
It's not always obvious to the listener when an analyst's argument is full of holes,
but you should always be on red alert when a single year of earnings is taken, at
face value, as the basis for market valuation. John Hussman
891
Life is a race. Death is the finish line. The objective is to go out with the highest
score possible — not in terms of dollars earned or battles won, but a life most fully
lived. Jack Sparrow
890
...because of the complexity of defining interacting and changing market patterns,
a good trader will usually be able to outperform a good system. Paul Tudor Jones
889
When you get a range expansion, the market is sending you a very loud, clear
signal that the market is getting ready to move in the direction of that expansion. Paul Tudor Jones
888
Maybe there are macroeconomic forces at work that are part of a larger super
cycle that we don't have any control over. Perhaps we are simply responding to the
same type of cycles that most advanced civilizations fell prey to, whether it was the
Romans, sixteenth-century Spain, eighteenth-century France, or nineteenth-
century Britain. Paul Tudor Jones
887
I know from studying history that credit eventually kills all great societies. We have
essentially taken out our American Express card and said we are going to have a
great time. Paul Tudor Jones
886
Everything gets destroyed a hundred times faster than it is built up. It takes one
day to tear down something that might have taken ten years to build. Paul Tudor Jones
885 I never apologize to anybody, because I don't get paid unless I win. Paul Tudor Jones
884
[No loyalty to positions] is important because it gives you a wide open intellectual
horizon to figure out what is really happening. It allows you to come in with a
completely clean slate in choosing the correct forecast for that particular market. Paul Tudor Jones
883
I try to avoid any emotional attachment to a market. I avoid letting my trading
opinions be influenced by comments I may have made on the record about a
market. Paul Tudor Jones
882
I think one of my strengths is that I view anything that has happened up to the
present point in time as history. I really don't care about the mistake I made three
seconds ago in the market. What I care about is what I am going to do from the
next moment on. Paul Tudor Jones
881
If I go into the market at just the right moment, by giving it a little gas on the upside,
I can create the illusion of a bull market. But, unless the market is really sound, the
second I stop buying, the price is going to come right down. Paul Tudor Jones
880
Everyone says you get killed trying to pick tops and bottoms and you make all the
money by catching the trends in the middle... I have often been missing the meat
in the middle, but I have caught a lot of bottoms and tops. Paul Tudor Jones
879
I consider myself a premier market opportunist. That means I develop an idea on
the market and pursue it from a very low-risk standpoint until I have repeatedly
been proven wrong, or until I change my viewpoint. Paul Tudor Jones
878
I have very strong views of the long-run direction of all markets. I also have a very
short-term horizon for pain. Paul Tudor Jones
877
I know that to be successful, I have to be frightened. My biggest hits have always
come after I have had a great period and I started to think that I knew something. Paul Tudor Jones
876
The idea that you can't beat the markets is a frightening prospect. That is why my
guiding trading philosophy is playing great defense. If you make a good trade,
don't think it is because you have some uncanny foresight. Always maintain your
sense of confidence, but keep it in check. Paul Tudor Jones
875
When I am trading poorly, I keep reducing my position size. That way, I will be
trading my smallest position size when my trading is worst. Paul Tudor Jones
874 Risk control is the most important thing in trading. Paul Tudor Jones
873
All the trades I have on are interrelated. I look at it in terms of what my equity is
each morning. My goal is to finish each day with more than I started. Paul Tudor Jones
872 I have a mental stop. If it hits that number, I am out no matter what. Paul Tudor Jones
871
Now I spend my day trying to make myself as happy and relaxed as I can be. If I
have positions going against me, I get right out; if they are going for me, I keep
them. Paul Tudor Jones
870
That was when I first decided I had to learn discipline and money management. It
was a cathartic experience for me, in the sense that I went to the edge, questioned
my very ability as a trader, and decided that I was not going to quit. I was
determined to come back and fight. I decided that I was going to become very
disciplined and businesslike about my trading. Paul Tudor Jones
869 First of all, never play macho man with the market. Second, never overtrade. Paul Tudor Jones
868
Tullis taught me about moving volume. When you are trading size, you have to get
out when the market lets you out, not when you want to get out. He taught me that
if you want to move a large position, you don't wait until the market is in new high
or low ground because very little volume may trade there if it is a turning point. Paul Tudor Jones
867
[Eli Tullis] was the toughest son of a bitch I ever knew. He taught me that trading is
very competitive and you have to be able to handle getting your butt kicked. No
matter how you cut it, there are enormous emotional ups and downs involved. Paul Tudor Jones
866
The one thing I learned from Eli [Tullis] is that, ultimately, the market is going to go
where it is going to go. Paul Tudor Jones
865
Learn from your mistakes. Don't be misled by the day-to-day fluctuations in your
equity. Focus on whether what you are doing is right, not on the random nature of
any single trade's outcome. Richard Dennis
864
The [Keynesian] theory is fine, it just doesn't work in the real world. Therefore, we
shouldn't use it. Richard Dennis
863
Trading to me is like betting on independent rolls of the dice that you think are
loaded a little bit in your favor, because you know some statistical things about the
market. Richard Dennis
862
It is a little bit like playing golf: You can throw your clubs around after making a bad
shot, but while you are making the next shot you keep your head down and your
eye on the ball. Richard Dennis
861
Being a trader is like being a boxer. Every now and then, the market gives you a
good wallop. Richard Dennis
860
There is no way to play just one side of that street. If you feel too good when things
are going well, then inevitably you will feel too bad when they are going poorly. I
wouldn't claim that I realized that after three years of trading, but after you've done
it for about twenty years, it either drives you crazy, or you learn to put it into
perspective. Richard Dennis
859
You have to maintain your perspective. There is more to life than trading. Also, to
me, being emotionally deflated would mean lacking confidence in what I am doing.
I avoid that because I have always felt that it is misleading to focus on short-term
results. Richard Dennis
858
It is totally counter productive to get wrapped up in the results. Trading decisions
should be made as unemotionally as possible. Richard Dennis
857
The correct approach is to say: This structure means up, and this structure means
up no more, but never that this structure means up this much and no more. Richard Dennis
856
If there is any lesson I have learned... it is that the unexpected and the impossible
happen every now and then. Richard Dennis
855
You should expect the unexpected in this business; expect the extreme. Don't
think in terms of boundaries that limit what the market might do. Richard Dennis
854
The idea that one side of the market is more likely to work in the absence of
anything else is an illusion. The market just wouldn't be here if that was true. Richard Dennis
853
My experience with novice traders is that they trade three to five times too big.
They are taking 5 to 10 percent risks on a trade when they should be taking 1 to 2
percent risks. Bruce Kovner
852
Whenever a trader says 'I wish,' or 'I hope,' he is engaging in a destructive way of
thinking because it takes attention away from the diagnostic process. Bruce Kovner
851
A common mistake is to think of the market as a personal nemesis. The market, of
course, is totally impersonal; it doesn't care whether you make money or not. Bruce Kovner
850
I would say that risk management is the most important thing to be well
understood. Undertrade, undertrade, undertrade is my second piece of advice.
Whatever you think your position ought to be, cut it at least in half. Bruce Kovner
849
As an alternative approach, one of the traders I know does very well in the stock
index markets by trying to figure out how the stock market can hurt the most
traders. It seems to work for him. Bruce Kovner
848
The stock market has far more short-term countertrends. After the market has
gone up, it always wants to come down. The commodity markets are driven by
supply and demand for physical goods; if there is a true shortage, prices will tend
to keep trending higher. Bruce Kovner
847
Nowadays, everybody is a chartist, and there are a huge number of technical
trading systems. I think that change has made it much harder for the technical
trader. Bruce Kovner
846 The general rule is: The less observed, the better the trade. Bruce Kovner
845
Through bitter experience, I have learned that a mistake in position correlation is
the root of some of the most serious problems in trading. If you have eight highly
correlated positions, then you are really trading one position that is eight times as
large. Bruce Kovner
844
What I am really looking for is a consensus that the market is not confirming. I like
to know that there are a lot of people who are going to be wrong. Bruce Kovner
843
When you are really involved, the screen almost reaches out and grabs you. The
way the quotes are made changes: They get wider, they get wilder. I have contacts
all over the world in each of these markets and I know what is going on. It is a
tremendously exciting game. Bruce Kovner
842
One of the jobs of a good trader is to imagine alternative scenarios. I try to form
many different mental pictures of what the world should be like and wait for one of
them to be confirmed. You keep trying them on one at a time. Inevitably, most of
these pictures will turn out to be wrong — that is, only a few elements of the
picture may prove correct. But then, all of a sudden, you will find in that one
picture, nine out of ten elements click. That scenario then becomes your image of
the world reality. Bruce Kovner
841
[The] principle characteristic of a bear market is very sharp down movements
followed by quick retracements... In a bear market, you have to use sharp
countertrend rallies to enter positions. Bruce Kovner
840
The only thing that disturbs me is poor money management. Every so often, I take
a loss that is significantly too large. But I never had a lot of difficulty with the
process of losing money, as long as losses were the outcome of sound trading
techniques. Bruce Kovner
839
The emotional burden of trading is substantial; on any given day, I could lose
millions of dollars. If you personalize these losses, you can't trade. Bruce Kovner
838
...the point about a technical barrier — and I've studied the technical aspects of the
market for a long time — is that the market shouldn't go there if you are right. Bruce Kovner
837
Whenever I enter a position, I have a predetermined stop. That is the only way I
can sleep. I know where I'm getting out before I get in. The position size on a trade
is determined by the stop, and the stop is determined on a technical basis. Bruce Kovner
836
The more a price pattern is observed by speculators, the more prone you are to
have false signals. The more a market is the product of nonspeculative activity, the
greater the significance of technical breakouts. Bruce Kovner
835
The Heisenberg principle in physics provides an analogy for the markets. If
something is closely observed, the odds are it is going to be altered in the process. Bruce Kovner
834
Tight congestions in which a breakout occurs for reasons that nobody understands
are usually good risk-reward trades. Bruce Kovner
833
...as a trader who has seen a great deal and been in a lot of markets, there is
nothing disconcerting to me about a price move out of a trading range that nobody
understands. Bruce Kovner
832
It is very important for me to study the details of price action to see if I can observe
something about how everybody is voting. Studying the charts is absolutely critical
and alerts me to existing disequilibria and potential changes. Bruce Kovner
831
Technical analysis reflects the vote of the entire marketplace and, therefore, does
pick up unusual behavior. By definition, anything that creates a new chart pattern
is something unusual. Bruce Kovner
830
For me, technical analysis is like a thermometer. Fundamentalists who say they
are not going to pay attention to the charts are like a doctor who says he's not
going to take a patient's temperature. But, of course, that would be sheer folly. If
you are a responsible participant in the market, you always want to know where
the market is — whether it is hot and excitable, or cold and stagnant. You want to
know everything you can about the market to give you an edge. Bruce Kovner
829
There is a great deal of hype attached to technical analysis by some technicians
who claim that it predicts the future. Technical analysis tracks the past; it does not
predict the future. You have to use your own intelligence to draw conclusions
about what the past activity of some traders may say about the future activity of
other traders. Bruce Kovner
828
Technical analysis, I think, has a great deal that is right and a great deal that is
mumbo jumbo. Bruce Kovner
827 The market usually leads because there are people who know more than you do. Bruce Kovner
826
I almost always trade on a market view; I don't trade simply on technical
information. I use technical analysis a great deal and it is terrific, but I can't hold a
position unless I understand why the market should move. Bruce Kovner
825
[Successful traders] are strong, independent, and contrary in the extreme. They
are able to take positions others are unwilling to take. They are disciplined enough
to take the right size positions. Bruce Kovner
824
I'm not sure one can really define why some traders make it, while others do not.
For myself, I can think of two important elements. First, I have the ability to imagine
configurations of the world different from today and really believe it can happen...
Second, I stay rational and disciplined under pressure. Bruce Kovner
823
[Michael Marcus] also taught me one other thing that is absolutely critical: You
have to be willing to make mistakes regularly; there is nothing wrong with it. [He]
taught me about making your best judgment, being wrong, making your next best
judgment, being wrong, making your third best judgment, and then doubling your
money. Bruce Kovner
822
Michael [Marcus] taught me one thing that was incredibly important... He taught
me that you could make a million dollars. He showed me that if you applied
yourself, great things could happen. It is very easy to miss the point that you really
can do it. He showed me that if you take a position and use discipline, you can
actually make it. Bruce Kovner
821
The first rule of trading — there are probably many first rules — is don't get caught
in a situation in which you can lose a great deal of money for reasons you don't
understand. Bruce Kovner
820
To this day, when something happens to disturb my emotional equilibrium and my
sense of what the world is like, I close out all positions related to that event. Bruce Kovner
819
I look for confirmation from the chart, the fundamentals, and the market action. I
think you can trade anything in the world that way. Michael Marcus
818
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. Michael Marcus
817
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. Michael Marcus
816
If trading is your life, it is a torturous kind of excitement. But if you are keeping your
life in balance, then it is fun. All the successful traders I've seen that lasted in the
business sooner or later got to that point. They have a balanced life; they have fun
outside of trading. Michael Marcus
815
Gut feel is very important. I don't know of any great professional trader that doesn't
have it. 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. Michael Marcus
814
You need to be aware that the world is very sophisticated and always ask yourself:
'How many people are left to act on this particular idea?' You have to consider
whether the market has already discounted your idea. Michael Marcus
813
When I talk to other traders, I try to keep very conscious of the idea that I have to
listen to myself. I try to take their information without getting overly influenced by
their opinion. Michael Marcus
812
In the final analysis, you need to have the courage to hold the position and take
the risk. Michael Marcus
811
Every trader has strengths and weaknesses. Some are good holders of winners,
but may hold their losers a little too long. Others may cut their winners a little short,
but are quick to take their losses. As long as you stick to your own style, you get
the good and bad in your own approach. Michael Marcus
810
Perhaps the most important rule is to hold on to your winners and cut your losers.
Both are equally important. If you don't stay with your winners, you are not going to
be able to pay for the losers. Michael Marcus
809
If you become unsure about a position, and you don't know what to do, just get out.
You can always come back in. When in doubt, get out and get a good night's
sleep. I've done that lots of times and the next day everything was clear. Michael Marcus
808
Another thing is that if a position doesn't feel right as soon as you put it on, don't
be embarrassed to change your mind and get right out. Michael Marcus
807
I think to be in the upper echelon of successful traders requires an innate skill, a
gift. It's just like being a great violinist. But to be a competent trader and make
money is a skill you can learn. Michael Marcus
806
...it hurt to realize what a fool I had been, but I have learned not to be as attached
to material things. I accepted it as a life lesson. I learned I don't have to own a
house in every beautiful place in the world; I can stay at a hotel and walk on the
beach or climb a trail there. Or, if I really feel like spoiling myself, I can charter a
plane; I don't have to own one. Michael Marcus
805
The best trades are the ones in which you have all three things going for you:
fundamentals, technicals, and market tone. First, the fundamentals should suggest
that there is an imbalance of supply and demand, which could result in a major
move. Second, the chart must show that the market is moving in the direction that
the fundamentals suggest. Third, when news comes out, the market should act in
a way that reflects the right psychological tone. Michael Marcus
804
My trading in those days was a little bit like being a surfer. I was trying to hit the
crest of the wave just at the right moment. But if it didn't work, I just got out. I was
getting a shot at making several hundred points and hardly risking anything. I later
used that surfing technique as a desk trader. Michael Marcus
803
At key intraday chart points, I could take much larger positions than I could afford
to hold, and if it didn't work immediately, I would get out quickly. For example, at a
critical intraday point, I would take a twenty-contract position, instead of the three
to five contracts I could afford to hold, using an extremely close stop. The market
either took off and ran, or I was out. Michael Marcus
802
I would sometimes think that maybe I ought to stop trading because it was very
painful to keep losing. In 'Fiddler on the Roof,' there is a scene where the lead
looks up and talks to God. 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. Michael Marcus
801
Trading provides one of the last great frontiers of opportunity in our economy. It is
one of the very few ways in which an individual can start with a relatively small
bankroll and actually become a multi-millionaire. Jack Schwager
799 Nuts!
General Anthony
McAuliffe
798 And remember — wherever you go, there you are. Confucius
797
All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered — the point is to
discover them. Galileo Galilei
796
The great questions of the time will not be resolved by speeches and majority
decisions — that was the great mistake of 1848 and 1849 — but by iron and blood. Otto von Bismarck
795
No two ideals were ever more incompatible than the security of conformity and the
freedom of individuality. After the choice is made, the rest is easy — unless you
don't have the guts to stick by your choice. Hunter S. Thompson
794
Beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life. Decide how you want to live and
then see what you can do to make a living WITHIN that way of life. Hunter S. Thompson
793
To let another man define your own goals is to give up one of the most meaningful
aspects of life — the definitive act of will which makes a man an individual. Hunter S. Thompson
792
Play your own game, be your own man, and don't ask anybody for a stamp of
approval. Hunter S. Thompson
791
Most people's lives are virtual monuments to cowardly indecision. Ah, that we lack
the courage of our romantic convictions; and thereby miss the wine of life, forgoing
the very thing that makes living worthwhile. Hunter S. Thompson
790
The reason that 'guru' is such a popular word is because 'charlatan' is so hard to
spell. William J. Bernstein
789 Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. Vince Lombardi
788 I am not a man, I am dynamite. Friedrich Nietzsche
787
He who asks fortune-tellers the future unwittingly forfeits an inner intimation of
coming events that is a thousand times more exact than anything they may say. Walter Benjamin
786
In their beginnings it is we who guide affairs and hold them in our power; but so
often once they are set in motion, it is they which guide us and sweep us along. Michel de Montaigne
785
There are very few men — and they are the exceptions — who are able to think
and feel beyond the present moment. Carl von Clausewitz
784
What the best may have, above all, is a capacity to learn and change — and to do
so faster than everyone else. Atul Gawande
783 When your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep becomes your downfall. unknown
782
In the face of uncertainty, wisdom is to err on the side of pushing, to not give up.
But you have to be ready to recognize when pushing is only ego, only weakness.
You have to be ready to recognize when the pushing can turn to harm. Atul Gawande
781
Thinking… is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just
as the eye perceives colors and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas. Rudolph Steiner
780
We must eradicate from the soul all fear and terror of what comes toward us out of
the future. We must acquire serenity in all feelings and sensation about the future.
We must look forward with absolute equanimity to everything that may come. Rudolph Steiner
779 Men willingly believe what they wish. Julius Caesar
778 Things change... You know, that's it in a nutshell. Mark Mobius
777
Economic history is a never-ending series of episodes based on falsehoods and
lies, not truths. It represents the path to big money. The object is to recognize the
trend whose premise is false, ride that trend, and step off before it is discredited. George Soros
776
Discipline is hard — harder than trustworthiness and skill... We are by nature
flawed and inconstant creatures. We can't even keep from snacking between
meals. We are not built for discipline. We are built for novelty and excitement, not
for careful attention to detail. Discipline is something we have to work at. Atul Gawande
775 If you're going to bet the farm, you'd better have two farms. Wall Street proverb
774
We typically trade our beliefs about the market and once we've made up our minds
about those beliefs, we're not likely to change them. And when we play the
markets, we assume that we are considering all of the available information.
Instead, our beliefs, through selective perception, may have eliminated the most
useful information. Van Tharp
773 Nothing endures but change. Heraclitus
772 All is flux, nothing stays still. Heraclitus
771 Pete, it's a fool that looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart. Ulysses Everett McGill
770
Forget about this idea of 'grinding out a day's pay.' If you want to make a day's pay
at the races, get a job watering horses, or pitching manure into trucks. Robert L. Bacon
769
When national debts have once been accumulated to a certain degree, there is
scarce, I believe, a single instance of their having been fairly and completely paid. Adam Smith
768 Everyone ought to be rich.
John J. Raskob,
Ladies Home Journal,
1929
767
Sophisticated institutions use complex, computer-driven models, but it remains far
from clear that their results are better than those achieved using a simplified
approach. Lack of discipline and a strong tendency of most people to feel more
comfortable running with the herd are the real enemies of good investment
performance, not the lack of complex models. Tony Boekh
766 The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan. Carl von Clausewitz
765
The economy never has been a mechanical phenomenon, nor will it ever be. It is
not like a pendulum or the orbiting of bodies in the solar system. Changes in
technology, innovation, economic structure, regulations, financial institutions, and
social and political attitudes are ongoing and an essential part of the flow. The
economy is subject to all these and many more interconnected influences. Tony Boekh
764
The mutuel take and the breakage add up to a percentage that continually grinds
and chisels the betting money... The grind privileges are spoken for and taken, so
the professional bettor must speculate. Robert L. Bacon
763 You Must Speculate — You CAN'T GRIND! Robert L. Bacon
762
To beat the percentage of the mutuels, the player must ALWAYS have an overlay.
He must always have an extra percentage in his favor, to counteract the 'take'
percentage. Robert L. Bacon
761
Fortune favors the speculator over the grinder because of the plain old arithmetical
percentages. The speculator has a percentage chance to win. The grinder has no
chance. Robert L. Bacon
760
The mutuel grinding only goes one way — against the bettor. But any percentage
can be overcome by enough winners at fat enough prices! Robert L. Bacon
759
The player at the races can't grind or chisel because [that girl] is taken. The
racetrack has all grind and chisel privileges! Robert L. Bacon
758
But there is no use kidding: The professionals keep out of switches by waiting for
the sound overlay spots. They don't play the bad races at both ends of the daily
programs. They don\'t play bad races -- period! When they feel the least bit of
doubt, they walk away from the mutuel windows and step into the bar for a
leisurely drink that will last until a better spot comes along. Robert L. Bacon
757
Any system is better than no system at all. But, of course, we are not studying here
to play any senseless systems or methods. Robert L. Bacon
756
The amateurs who play so carelessly and who fall into all the wrong switches do
not stop to consider the percentages of their rightful losses. When an amateur
goes to the track and loses nine bets (eight races and a daily double) and loses all
his capital for the day, he has lost many times what the percentage calls for. He
has no right to lose so much. It's almost as if he did it on purpose! Robert L. Bacon
755
If the average player — the public play — kept out of all these switches and traps,
then the powers-than-be would have to make the game far more complicated in
order to insure the fact that the majority of players continue to lose and thus
continue to furnish money to keep up the game. Robert L. Bacon
754
[Horse] Racing is simple. Everything about the game is logical and common sense
and elementary. All the figures and the mathematics and the mechanics of racing
can be understood by a child in junior-high school. But the game is decked out in
an endless number of minor contradictions and open switches and deadfall traps,
in order to lure the average player into doing everything wrong. Robert L. Bacon
753
Some amateur players carry inconsistency to such a degree that they demand
consistency from the horses, while at the same time being utterly inconsistent in
their methods of play. It's not the races that beat these players — it's the switches! Robert L. Bacon
752 The public can never catch up to the form — or the game ceases. Robert L. Bacon
751
The principle of ever-changing trends works to force quick and drastic changes of
results sequences when the public happens to get wise to a winning idea. Robert L. Bacon
750
There is no danger of the public ever finding any key to the secret of winning. The
crazy gambling urge and speculative hysteria that overcomes most players at the
track makes that fact a certainty. But, if the public play ever did get wise to the
facts of life, the principle of ever-changing cycles of results would move the form
away from the public immediately. Robert L. Bacon
749
The beginner plunges ahead on a favorite that loses, then bets lightly on a fair-
priced horse that wins. He keeps switching amounts and positions, so that he
never has a worthwhile bet on a winner at a worthwhile price. He is always one
race behind the form of a horse and several races behind the rhythm of the results
sequences. Robert L. Bacon
748
Few players take into consideration the principle of ever-changing cycles of
results. The would-be professional player must always understand that the form
moves away from the public's knowledge. Robert L. Bacon
747 If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master. Francis Bacon
746 Money is a terrible master but an excellent servant. P.T. Barnum
745
When the government produces one quantity of the public good, money, the public
will proceed to make more, just as lawyers find new loopholes in tax laws as fast
as legislation closes up old ones.
Charles P.
Kindleberger
744 John Bull can stand many things, but he cannot stand 2 percent. Walter Bagehot
743
Manias and bubbles are an integral part of the Age of Inflation because they are
caused by too much money and credit. Tony Boekh
742
There have probably been more financial manias in the past 50 years than in any
other period in history. More recent experience shows that they seem to be getting
more extreme, as are the nasty consequences. Tony Boekh
741
One thing is certain, that at particular times a great deal of stupid people have a
great deal of stupid money... At intervals, the money of these people — the blind
capital, as we call it, of a country, is particularly large and craving; it seeks for
someone to devour it, and there is a 'plethora'; it finds someone, and there is
speculation; it is devoured, and there is 'panic'. Walter Bagehot
740
But perhaps what separated us more than all else was that they were of the land,
while I belonged to the sea. Henry de Monfreid
739
How could men whose every instinct held them to the warmth and motion of the
herd, understand that just as instinctively I preferred solitude — solitude peopled
with the ever-changing moods of the elements? Henry de Monfreid
738
For eighteen years I followed the sea, took what it offered. It has brought me
shipwreck and success, sorrow, danger, and unutterable happiness. Henry de Monfreid
737
...the way most fortunes are lost is not through excessive expenditure, but through
bad investments. Paul Graham
736
We delighted in forcing bigger, slower competitors to follow us over difficult ground.
Like guerillas, startups prefer the difficult terrain of the mountains, where the troops
of the central government can't follow. Paul Graham
735
The larger a group, the closer its average member will be to the average for the
population as a whole. So all other things being equal, a very able person in a big
company is probably getting a bad deal, because his performance is dragged
down by the overall lower performance of the others. Paul Graham
734
A big company is like a giant galley driven by a thousand rowers. Two things keep
the speed of the galley down. One is that individual rowers don't see any result
from working harder. The other is that, in a group of a thousand people, the
average rower is likely to be pretty average. Paul Graham
733
If you're in a job that feels safe, you are not going to get rich, because if there is no
danger there is almost certainly no leverage. Paul Graham
732
To get rich you need to get yourself in a situation with two things, measurement
and leverage. You need to be in a position where your performance can be
measured, or there is no way to get paid more by doing more. And you have to
have leverage, in the sense that the decisions you make have a big effect. Paul Graham
730
The movie will begin in five moments, the mindless voice announced. All those
unseated will await the next show. Jim Morrison
729
If you can dream — and not make dreams your master; If you can think — and not
make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster; And treat
those two impostors just the same... Rudyard Kipling
728
Financial commentators who don't actually invest are like sex therapists who don't
have sex. Jack Sparrow
727
As a military force has no constant formation, water has no constant shape: the
ability to gain victory by changing and adapting according to the opponent is called
genius. Sun Tzu
725 Therefore victory in war is not repetitious, but adapts its form endlessly. Sun Tzu
724
Everyone knows the form by which I am victorious, but no one knows the form by
which I ensure victory. Sun Tzu
723
When you are concentrated into one while the opponent is divided into ten, you are
attacking at a concentration of ten to one, so you outnumber the opponent. Sun Tzu
722
To advance irresistibly, push through their gaps. To retreat elusively, outspeed
them. Sun Tzu
721 Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Sun Tzu
720
To unfailingly take what you attack, attack where there is no defense. For
unfailingly secure defense, defend where there is no attack. Sun Tzu
719 Appear where they cannot go, head for where they least expect you. Sun Tzu
718
So when opponents are at ease, it is possible to tire them. When they are well fed,
it is possible to starve them. When they are at rest, it is possible to move them. Sun Tzu
717
What causes opponents to come of their own accord is the prospect of gain. What
discourages opponents from coming is the prospect of harm. Sun Tzu
716 Therefore good warriors cause others to come to them, and do not go to others. Sun Tzu
715
Those who are first on the battlefield and await the opponents are at ease; those
who are last on the battlefield and head into battle get worn out. Sun Tzu
714
The thing to do is watch the market, read the tape to determine the limits of the get-
nowhere prices, and make up your mind that you will not take an interest until the
price breaks through the limit in either direction.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
713 The future's uncertain and the end is always near... Jim Morrison
712
The average American is from Missouri everywhere and at all times except when
he goes to the brokers' offices and looks at the tape... He will risk half his fortune in
the stock market with less reflection than he devotes to the selection of a medium-
priced automobile.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
711
For purposes of easy explanation we will say that prices, like everything else,
move along the line of least resistance. They will do whatever comes easiest,
therefore they will go up if there is less resistance to an advance than to a decline;
and vice versa.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
710
The trend is evident to a man who has an open mind and reasonably clear sight,
for it is never wise for a speculator to fit his facts to his theories. Such a man will,
or ought to, know whether it is a bull or a bear market, and if he knows that he
knows whether to buy or to sell.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
709
A man ought not to be led into trading by tokens. He should wait until the tape tells
him that the time is ripe.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
708
And right here I will say that, though I do not give it as a mathematical certainty or
as an axiom of speculation, my experience has been that accidents — that is, the
unexpected or unforeseen — have always helped me in my market position
whenever the latter has been based upon my determination of the line of least
resistance.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
707
...any important piece of news given out between the closing of one market and
the opening of another is usually in harmony with the line of least resistance. The
trend has been established before the news is published, and in bull markets bear
items are ignored and bull news exaggerated, and vice versa.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
706
It sounds very easy to say that all you have to do is to watch the tape, establish
your resistance points and be ready to trade along the line of least resistance as
soon as you have determined it. But in actual practice a man has to guard against
many things, and most of all against himself — that is, against human nature.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
705
When a man makes his play in a commodity market he must not permit himself set
opinions. He must have an open mind and flexibility. It is not wise to disregard the
message of the tape, no matter what your opinion of crop conditions or of the
probable demand may be.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
704
In a narrow market, when prices are not getting anywhere to speak of but move
within a narrow range, there is no sense in trying to anticipate what the next big
movement is going to be — up or down.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
703
It would not be so difficult to make money if a trader always stuck to his
speculative guns — that is, waited for the line of least resistance to define itself
and began buying only when the tape said up or selling only when it said down.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
702
After the real movement started, how long would it take to make up the fifty
thousand dollars I had dropped in order to make sure that I began to load up at
exactly the right time? No time at all! It always pays a man to be right at the right
time.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
701
The weaknesses that all men are prone to are fatal to success in speculation —
usually those very weaknesses that make him likable to his fellows or that he
himself particularly guards against in those other ventures of his where they are
not nearly so dangerous as when he is trading in stocks or commodities.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
700
I sometimes think that speculation must be an unnatural sort of business, because
I find that the average speculator has arrayed against him his own nature.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
699 It is absolutely wrong to gamble in stocks the way the average man does.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
698
The speculator's chief enemies are always boring from within. It is inseparable
from human nature to hope and to fear... The successful trader has to fight these
two deep-seated instincts. He has to reverse what you might call his natural
impulses. Instead of hoping he must fear; instead of fearing he must hope. He
must fear that his loss may develop into a much bigger loss, and hope that his
profit may become a big profit.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
697
A trader gets to play the game as the professional billiard player does — that is, he
looks far ahead instead of considering the particular shot before him. It gets to be
an instinct to play for position.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
696
The professional concerns himself with doing the right thing rather than with
making money, knowing that the profit takes care of itself if the other things are
attended to.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
695
A man can't spend years at one thing and not acquire a habitual attitude towards it
quite unlike that of the average beginner. The difference distinguishes the
professional from the amateur. It is the way a man looks at things that makes or
loses money for him in the speculative markets.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
694
But Fate does not always let you fix the tuition fee. She delivers the educational
wallop and presents her own bill, knowing you have to pay it, no matter what
amount it may be.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
693
Of all speculative blunders there are few worse than trying to average a losing
game. My cotton deal proved it to the hilt a little later. Always sell what shows you
a loss and keep what shows you a profit. That was so obviously the wise thing to
do and was so well known to me that even now I marvel at myself for doing the
reverse.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
692
The loss of the money didn't bother me. Whenever I have lost money in the stock
market I have always considered that I have learned something; that if I have lost
money I have gained experience, so that the money really went for a tuition fee. A
man has to have experience and he has to pay for it.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
691
I knew that unless I had sufficient trading capital I would not be able to use good
judgment. Without adequate margins it would be impossible to take the cold-
blooded, dispassionate attitude toward the game that comes from the ability to
afford a few minor losses such as I often incurred in testing the market before
putting down the big bet.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
690
I have come to feel that it is as necessary to know how to read myself as to know
how to read the tape. I have studied and reckoned on my own reactions to given
impulses or to the inevitable temptations of an active market, quite in the same
mood and spirit as I have considered crop conditions or analyzed reports of
earnings.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
689
When you read contemporary accounts of booms or panics the one thing that
strikes you most forcibly is how little either stock speculation or stock speculators
today differ from yesterday. The game does not change and neither does human
nature.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
688
A man does not swear eternal allegiance to either the bull or the bear side. His
concern lies with being right.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
687
I was not, and I never have felt that I was, wedded indissolubly to one or the other
side of the market. That a bull market has added to my bank account or a bear
market has been particularly generous I do not consider sufficient reason for
sticking to the bull or the bear side after I receive the get-out warning.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
686
And there is another thing to remember, and that is that a market does not
culminate in one grand blaze of glory. Neither does it end with a sudden reversal of
form. A market can and does often cease to be a bull market long before prices
generally begin to break.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
685
I cleared about three million dollars in 1916 by being bullish as long as the bull
market lasted and then by being bearish when the bear market started. As I said
before, a man does not have to marry one side of the market till death do them
part.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
684
On the news the market broke badly and I naturally covered. It was the only play
possible. When something happens on which you did not count when you made
your plans it behooves you to utilize the opportunity that a kindly fate offers you.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
683
I have in mind certain hazards of speculation that from time to time remind a man
that no profit should be counted safe until it is deposited in your bank to your
credit.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
682
The belief in miracles that all men cherish is born of immoderate indulgence in
hope. There are people who go on hope sprees periodically and we all know the
chronic hope drunkard that is held up before us as an exemplary optimist.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
681
At first, when I listened to the accounts of old-time deals and devices I used to
think that people were more gullible in the 1860's and 70's than in the 1900's. But I
was sure to read in the newspapers that very day or the next something about the
latest Ponzi or the bust-up of some bucketing broker and about the millions of
sucker money gone to join the silent majority of vanished savings.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
680
In booms, which is when the public is in the market in the greatest numbers, there
is never any need of subtlety, so there is no sense of wasting time discussing
either manipulation or speculation during such times; it would be like trying to find
the difference in raindrops that are falling synchronously on the same roof across
the street.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
679
It is enough for the experienced trader to perceive that something is wrong. He
must not expect the tape to become a lecturer. His job is to listen for it to say 'Get
out!' and not wait for it to submit a legal brief for approval.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
678
When I lose money by reason of some development which nobody could foresee I
think no more vindictively of it than I do of an inconveniently timed storm. Life itself
from the cradle to the grave is a gamble and what happens to me because I do not
possess the gift of second sight I can bear undisturbed.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
677
Among the hazards of speculation the happening of the unexpected—I might even
say of the unexpectable—ranks high. There are certain chances that the most
prudent man is justified in taking—chances that he must take if he wishes to be
more than a mercantile mollusk.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
676
The theory that most of the sudden declines or particular sharp breaks are the
results of some plunger's operations probably was invented as an easy way of
supplying reasons to those speculators who, being nothing but blind gamblers, will
believe anything that is told them rather than do a little thinking.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
674
I admit that I do get irresistible impulses at times to do certain things in the market.
It doesn't matter whether I am long or short of stocks. I must get out. I am
uncomfortable until I do. I myself think that what happens is that I see a lot of
warning-signals. Perhaps not a single one may be sufficiently clear or powerful to
afford me a positive, definite reason for doing what I suddenly feel like doing.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
673
The training of a stock trader is like a medical education. The physician has to
spend long years learning anatomy, physiology, materia medica and collateral
subjects by the dozen. He learns the theory and then proceeds to devote his life to
the practice.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
672
You can transmit knowledge—that is, your particular collection of card-indexed
facts—but not your experience. A man may know what to do and lose money—if
he doesn't do it quickly enough.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
671
Years of practice at the game, of constant study, of always remembering, enable
the trader to act on the instant when the unexpected happens as well as when the
expected comes to pass.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
670
Observation, experience, memory and mathematics—these are what the
successful trader must depend on. He must not only observe accurately but
remember at all times what he has observed.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
669
A man can have great mathematical ability and an unusual power of accurate
observation and yet fail in speculation unless he also possesses the experience
and the memory. And then, like the physician who keeps up with the advances of
science, the wise trader never ceases to study general conditions, to keep track of
developments everywhere that are likely to affect or influence the course of the
various markets.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
668
Of course, it often happens that an experienced trader acts so quickly that he
hasn't time to give all his reasons in advance—but nevertheless they are good and
sufficient reasons, because they are based on facts collected by him in his years of
working and thinking and seeing things from the angle of the professional, to whom
everything that comes to his mill is grist.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
667
Experience has taught me that the way a market behaves is an excellent guide for
an operator to follow. It is like taking a patient's temperature and pulse or noting
the colour of the eyeballs and the coating of the tongue.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
666
I study because my business is to trade. The moment the tape told me that I was
on the right track my business duty was to increase my line. I did. That is all there
is to it.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
665
I have found that experience is apt to be a steady dividend payer in this game and
that observation gives you the best tips of all.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
664
An old broker once said to me: 'If I am walking along a railroad track and I see a
train coming toward me at sixty miles an hour, do I keep on walking on the ties?
Friend, I sidestep. And I do not even pat myself on the back for being so wise and
prudent.'
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
663
I cannot expect to play certainties only. I must reckon on probabilities — and
anticipate them.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
662
I have sometimes bought a stock during an undoubted bull market and found out
that other stocks in the same group were not acting bullishly and I have sold out
my stock. Why? Experience tells me that it is not wise to buck against what I may
call the manifest group-tendency.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
661
I never buy a stock even in a bull market, if it doesn't act as it ought to act in that
kind of market.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
660
Speculation in stocks will never disappear. It isn't desirable that it should. It cannot
be checked by warnings as to its dangers. You cannot prevent people from
guessing wrong no matter how able or how experienced they may be.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
659
The Budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt
should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and
controlled, and the assistance of foreign lands should be curtailed lest the Republic
become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public
assistance.
Marcus Tullius Cicero,
55 BC
658
Come on you raver, you seer of visions — Come on you painter, you piper, you
prisoner, and shine! Pink Floyd
657
The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good
knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners... The Big Lebowski
656
I'll tell you what I'm blathering about... I've got information, man! New shit has
come to light! The Big Lebowski
655 Obviously you're not a golfer. The Big Lebowski
654 I'm in the high-fidelity, first-class traveling section, I think I need a lear jet... Pink Floyd
653 ...that's just, like, your opinion, man. The Big Lebowski
652 This aggression will not stand, man! The Big Lebowski
651 Losers average losers. Paul Tudor Jones
650 Always look for a trending market. Paul Tudor Jones
649 If you sit by the river long enough, you will see the bodies of your enemies float by. Sun Tzu
648
To play ball, you need three things. Heart. Mind. Balls. If you have two, you can
play, but you will never be great. To be great, all three. Frank Curiel
647
I looked up and saw the Valkyries coming and heard the grim reaper's scythe
knocking on my door. I did my best to run to the light. Cliff Asness
646
...the storm in the equity market was surely a warning. The most sophisticated
hedge funds had lost control of their models. The rocket scientists had blown up
their rockets. More Money Than God
645 That which does not kill me, makes me stronger. Friedrich Nietzsche
644 I have lived a rich, restless, magnificent life. Henry de Monfreid
643
To all great human traders, knowing when to go for the jugular and when to be
patient is a large part of the skill; spotting the best opportunities and betting big
could make a greater contribution to the bottom line than increasing the share of
bets that you were right on. More Money Than God
642
Typically bubbles have an asymmetric shape. The boom is long and slow to start.
It accelerates gradually until it flattens out again during the twilight period. The bust
is short and steep because it involves the forced liquidation of unsound positions.
Disillusionment turns into panic, reaching its climax in a financial crisis. George Soros
641
Every bubble has two components: an underlying trend that prevails in reality and
a misconception relating to that trend. When a positive feedback develops
between the trend and the misconception, a boom-bust process is set in motion.
The process is liable to be tested by negative feedback along the way, and if it is
strong enough to survive these tests, both the trend and the misconception will be
reinforced. George Soros
640
Bubbles are not the only manifestations of reflexivity, but they are the most
spectacular. George Soros
639
...a positive feedback is self-reinforcing. It cannot go on forever because
eventually, market prices would become so far removed from reality that market
participants would have to recognize them as unrealistic. When that tipping point is
reached, the process becomes self-reinforcing in the opposite direction. George Soros
638
Reflexivity sets up a feedback loop between market valuations and the so-called
fundamentals which are being valued. The feedback can be either positive or
negative. George Soros
637
Financial markets, far from accurately reflecting all the available knowledge,
always provide a distorted view of reality. This is the principle of fallibility. The
degree of distortion may vary from time to time. Sometimes it's quite insignificant,
at other times it is quite pronounced. George Soros
636
All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Great works are
often born on a street corner or in a restaurant's revolving door. Albert Camus
635
One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always
a clever thing to say. Will Durant
634 Hope is independent of the apparatus of logic. Norman Cousins
633
Wall Street is populated by conventional thinkers, serving compromised ends, in
the confines of a broken system. Jack Sparrow
632
Events as disparate as Japanese trade negotiations and Mexican assassinations
had been linked in terrifying ways by the tentacles of leverage. More Money Than God
631 I stood back and looked at myself with awe: I saw a perfectly honed machine. George Soros
630
Too many men don't want to do something after they make money. They just go on
and make a lot more money. Alfred Winslow Jones
629
Great investors tend to have a 'screw loose,' pursuing the game not for profit, but
for sport. David Swensen
628
It's time to be vicious. It's time to kill, and enjoy the killing, so something better can
live. Not enough is said about the importance of abandoning crap. Ira Glass
627
The beating heart of creativity is a passionate commitment to exploring, testing
and discarding new ideas. Jack Sparrow
626 What everybody 'knows' is frequently wrong. Peter Drucker
625
Hold on loosely, but don't let go... if you cling too tightly, you're gonna lose
control... 38 Special
624 Rommel, you magnificent bastard. I read your book! Patton
623
I thought random walk was bullshit... The whole idea that an individual can't make
serious money with a competitive edge over the rest of the market is wacko. Helmut Weymar
622 Not a bear in sight. The bear patrol is working like a charm. Homer J. Simpson
621
The stock market is an inexact phenomenon. Laypersons' opinions often seem as
worthy as professionals', and shoeshine men and brokers compete for genius. Michael Steinhardt
620 Fear is an impediment to clarity. So is greed. Jack Sparrow
619
The best poker players — the very best, world-class players when they are in
action — are machines. They are cool headed, intuitive, impassive, imperturbable,
and relentless.
Zen and the Art of
Poker
618 A man who has attained mastery of an art reveals it in his every action. Samurai maxim
617
When the reality of power has been surrendered, it's playing a dangerous game to
seek to retain the appearance of it. Alexis de Tocqueville
616
The world is ruled by letting things take their course. It cannot be ruled by
interfering. Lao Tzu
615 The way of the wise man is to act and not compete. Zen proverb
614
You and your opponent are one. There is a coexisting relationship between you.
You coexist with your opponent and become his complement, absorbing his attack
and using his force to overcome him. Bruce Lee
613 Become more acutely aware of what's happening right now, this very moment. Phil Jackson
612
No matter what the activity — be it music, art, sports, a profession or trade — there
is a state of achievement wherein it becomes so perfected through practice and a
certain mental attitude, that it seems to function independently of the performer. Arthur Sokoloff
611
He who is skilled in attack flashes forth from the topmost heights of heaven,
making it impossible for the enemy to guard against him. Sun Tzu
610
Withdraw like a mountain in movement, advance like a rainstorm. Strike and crush
with shattering force; go into battle like a tiger. Zhuge Liang
609
Aggression exists in nature. What may look like a harmless bumble bee is a highly
aggressive force on its own level, engaged in a life-and-death struggle. What
appears to be a delicate flower is in fact an organism violently struggling and
forcing itself into life. These and other delicacies (at least as they appear to the
human eye) could easily be mistaken for some form of passivity, when in fact there
is a very different paradigm present.
Zen and the Art of
Poker
608
The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and
then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy. Sun Tzu
607 Make sure you're right, then go ahead. Davy Crockett
606
In battle, momentum means riding on the force of the tide of events. If enemies are
on the way to destruction, then you follow up and press them. Liu Ji
605
In war one sees one's own difficulties, and does not take into account those of the
enemy; one must have confidence in one's self. Napoleon
604 Induce others to construct a formation while you yourself are formless. Sun Tzu
603 Fixity is death; fluidity is life. Winston L. King
602 Whoever has form can be defined, and whoever can be defined can be overcome. Sun Tzu
601
Whenever you pursue people on the run, chasing beaten soldiers, you must make
sure whether they are really fleeing or just feigning. Liu Ji
600
The rule is: When the enemy is far away but tries to promote hostilities, he wants
you to move forward. Sun Tzu
599
To overcome the intelligent by folly is contrary to the natural order of things; to
overcome the foolish by intelligence is in accord with the natural order. To
overcome the intelligent by intelligence, however, is a matter of opportunity. Zhuge Liang
598 He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat. Napoleon
597 Perhaps we must always advance a little by zig-zags. Theodore Roosevelt
596 Victory shifts from man to man. Homer's Iliad
595
In war, when adversaries are orderly in their movements and are at their sharpest,
it is not yet time to fight with them; it is best to fortify your position and wait. Watch
for their energy to wane after being on alert for a long time; then rise and strike
them. Liu Ji
594 Good warriors prevail when it is easy to prevail. Sun Tzu
593 When two tigers fight, one will be killed and the other will be seriously wounded. Zen proverb
592
If a player is not in a normal rhythm or in balance with the game, that is a signal
that something is wrong. Good players spot this rhythm shift as quickly as a
musician hears a note out of tune. Steve Fox
591
When you see the enemy to be empty, proceed; where you see the enemy to be
full, stop. Zhuge Liang
590
Years of experience eventually teach you that your main battle, always, is with
yourself — your propensity for errors, for rationalizing marginal hands into good
hands, lack of concentration, misreading other players, emotional eruptions,
impatience, and so on. Your opponents are merely dim outlines that come and go.
Few of them ever reach the exalted heights of damage that you can inflict on
yourself.
Zen and the Art of
Poker
589
It is important to come to the table with the goal of mastering yourself, not just the
game. In many ways, this is more important than mastering the game. The reason
is simple: For the most part, you already know the game. This mastering of
yourself, however, is the work of a lifetime.
Zen and the Art of
Poker
588
Even if our efforts of attention seem for years to be producing no result, one day a
light that is in exact proportion to them will flood the room. Simone Weil
587
Like an Olympic runner who learns to run 'within himself,' you will eventually
become comfortable inside your knowledge of the game. You will cease striving;
the clouds will disperse, the sun comes out.
Zen and the Art of
Poker
586
It's just like learning archery; eventually you reach a point where ideas are ended
and feelings forgotten, and then you suddenly hit the target. Zen master Ying-An
585 When the way comes to an end, then change. Having changed, you pass through. I Ching
584
From the moment we cease trying to swim upstream and begin to flow with the
current, something changes within us. Arthur Sokoloff
583
When we are focused exclusively on our own emotions (as we often are), the
emotions of others tend to be obscured. When we make ourselves neutral,
however, we find that the canvas suddenly becomes blank and the emotions of
others begin to appear.
Zen and the Art of
Poker
582
You should not grieve over bad shots; learn now not to rejoice over the good ones.
You must free yourself from the buffetings of pleasure and pain, and learn to rise
above them in easy equanimity. This too, you must practice unceasingly — you
cannot conceive how important it is. Eugen Herrigel
581
You must not be astonished at anything that comes up... Accept it all calmly, as if
you were a mere spectator, uninterested, and were observing a process for which
you need not feel responsible... The result, in the end, is perfect stillness. Eugen Herrigel
580 Teach us to care and not to care... teach us to sit still. T.S. Eliot
579
Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be attained only by
someone who is detached. Simone Weil
578
Before enlightenment: Chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment: Chop wood,
carry water. Zen proverb
577
Players sometimes think that great things are called for — sophisticated plays,
plays that go beyond the ordinary, into the extraordinary, where some other realm
of effort is required. In fact, once skill is achieved, ordinary levels of calm are
sufficient.
Zen and the Art of
Poker
576 Sitting quiet, doing nothing, spring comes, and grass grows by itself. Zen proverb
575 Everything is true just as it is: Why dislike it? Why hate it? Zen proverb
574
This is the point you want to get to: a detachment so complete that it almost
borders on disinterest. (Cautionary note: it is important to have a large enough
bankroll to allow you to play like this.)
Zen and the Art of
Poker
573
Everything that happens, and above all what happens to me, should be observed
impartially, as though on the deepest level it did not concern me. Eugen Herrigel
572
Please don't think that I'm bragging about the fact that I didn't lose in saying that I
know the secret of not losing, but winning. I really do know the secret. It's very
stupid and simple and amounts to ceaseless self-control at all stages of the game
and not getting excited. That's all there is to it. That way you can't lose and are
bound to win. But that's not the point. The point is whether, once you know the
secret, you are capable of exploiting it. Fyodor Dostoevsky
571
Remain dispassionate. Make it your goal to achieve a cool and calm demeanor.
This is necessary in order to 'keep the airwaves clear' in order to read incoming
signals correctly.
Zen and the Art of
Poker
570
Many gray areas exist, many borderline decisions. Superheated emotions can tip
all these borderline decisions the wrong way, like dominoes, until they add up to
disaster. Skill at detachment (and rebounding from losses) is important: the ability
to dismiss the previous hand from mind is crucial.
Zen and the Art of
Poker
569 When the pools of perception are cleansed, everything appears as it is. Zen proverb
568
As regards the quietude of the sage, he is not quiet because quietness is said to
be good. He is quiet because the multitude of things cannot disturb his quietude. Chuang-tzu
567 There is an uphill road and there is a downhill road. Japanese proverb
566 The way goes onward and contains its own correction. Eugen Herrigel
565
Imagine a boxer coming into the ring, expecting to meet his opponent face to face.
Instead, he finds himself in a ring filled only with fog. He swings wildly, but makes
no contact with anything. His force is dissipating, and there is little he can do. Arthur Sokoloff
564
It is not enough to rely on luck or hope to carry us past the weak parts of our
game. These parts must be attended to. The system must be whole and complete.
Zen and the Art of
Poker
563
The spider dances her web without knowing that there are flies who will get caught
in it. Eugen Herrigel
562 Get the facts, or the facts will get you. Thomas Fuller
561 Among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised. Niccolo Machiavelli
560 Thousands of repetitions, and out of one's true self perfection emerges. Neville Shulman
559 Should you desire the great tranquility, prepare to sweat white beads. Zen master Hakuin
558 The technically learnable part of it must be practiced to the point of repletion. Eugen Herrigel
557 You must act as if the goal were infinitely far off. Eugen Herrigel
556 Let others take their own way, and I take my own. Japanese proverb
555
War, battles, and conflicts of all kinds (including poker) set in motion forces that
quickly become unpredictable. Small defects or problems that are present at the
beginning can quickly spiral out of control. And if small problems can do this, think
what starting out with large problems means.
Zen and the Art of
Poker
554 There is nothing so subject to the inconstancy of fortune as war. Miguel de Cervantes
553 Only by avoiding the beginning of things can we escape their ending. Cyril Connolly
552 One inch ahead all is darkness. Japanese proverb
551 Wait for a good pitch to hit. Ted Williams
550
We must be able to back away from the game, but not by putting great
commitment and the muscle of our emotions into doing so.
Zen and the Art of
Poker
549 Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience. Ralph Waldo Emerson
548
Develop a readiness to participate — that is, to explode into action — which is
separate from the relaxed state you are in at the times in between.
Zen and the Art of
Poker
547 There is interaction if there is a call for it, no interaction if there is no call for it. Zen master Yangshan
546
Do you have the patience to wait... til your mud settles and the water is clear? Can
you remain unmoving... til the right action arises by itself? Lao Tzu
545
...over the long run the hands you fold make the hands you do play stand out more
sharply and give them more power.
Zen and the Art of
Poker
544 You must learn to wait properly. Eugen Herrigel
543 Be the ball. Caddyshack
542 Who knows this morning what will happen tonight? Chinese proverb
541 Buy when there's blood in the streets, even if the blood is your own. Baron Rothschild
540
Dealing with failure is easy: Work hard to improve. Success is also easy to handle:
You've solved the wrong problem. Work hard to improve. Alan Perlis
538 Change breaks the brittle. Jan Houtema
537
People don't change their minds. They die, and are replaced by people with
different opinions. Arturo Albergati
536
As all these results were obtained, not by any heroic method, but by patient and
detailed reasoning, I began to think it probable that philosophy had erred in
adopting heroic remedies for intellectual difficulties, and that solutions were to be
found merely by greater care and accuracy. Bertrand Russell
535
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do
that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. Mark Twain
534
Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous
and the unpalatable. J.K. Galbraith
533
We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all
that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about. Albert Einstein
532
The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-
meaning but without understanding. Louis David Brandeis
531 The imagination of nature is far, far greater than the imagination of man. Richard Feynman
530
There's practice, and then there is deep practice. All too often, the first is a waste
of time. Jack Sparrow
529
The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot
possibly go wrong is that, when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong,
it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair. Douglas Adams
528
I do what I do best, I take scores. You do what you do best, try to stop guys like
me. Heat
527 He knew the risks, he didn't have to be there. It rains... you get wet. Heat
526
Do you see me doin' thrill seeker liquor store robberies with a 'Born To Lose' tattoo
on my chest? Heat
525
Do not have any attachments, do not have anything in your life you are not willing
to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you spot the heat around the corner. Heat
524 I will either find a way, or make one. Hannibal
523
A fundamental characteristic of our economy is that the financial system swings
between robustness and fragility, and these swings are an integral part of the
process that generates business cycles. Hyman Minsky
522 A man must constantly exceed his level. Bruce Lee
521
I don't have much formal education in these things, but you learn. You build
enough stuff; after a while, you see it. And if you reverse-engineer enough things,
you see what other people have done. Steve Perlman
520
This is a war universe. War all the time. There may be other universes, but ours
seems to be based on war and games. William S. Burroughs
519
There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go
beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level. Bruce Lee
518
...if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it'll spread
over into the rest of your life. It'll spread into your work, into your morality, into your
entire being. Bruce Lee
517
…they are taking risks all the time, but they don't want to acknowledge that they
are taking risks. They want to pretend everything is risk-free. Paul Buchheit
516
I kind of like uncertainty to some extent, because it's a little bit of suspense and
excitement and adventure... And you can learn a lot even if things don't work out.
But not everyone likes adventure. A lot of people seem to be against uncertainty,
actually. In all areas of life. Paul Buchheit
515
People have a narrow concept of what's possible, and we're limited more by our
own ideas of what's possible than what really is possible. So they just get
uncomfortable, and they kind of tend to attack it for whatever reason. Paul Buchheit
514 I think, in general, people are uncomfortable with things that are different. Paul Buchheit
513
Paradoxically, the more that governments try to protect us against financial
disasters, the more likely they are to occur. Tony Boekh
511
Long wave forces are very powerful and operate slowly over time, making them
hard to recognize by most people. The long wave is like the tide in the ocean,
powerful and operating below the surface. Tony Boekh
510
Conventional thinking, particularly around important turning points, is usually not
very helpful because it tends to focus on the extrapolation of past trends into the
future. Tony Boekh
509
To learn consistently, most people need not only to understand their own biases,
but also to improve the quality of the feedback they receive. Decision Traps
508
'Know your own strength' can be taken as a pessimistic warning or a lofty
aspiration. It all depends on how you look at it. But then that's pretty much true of
everything. Jack Sparrow
507
Great traders can afford to be humble. In the face of ever present uncertainty, their
huge profits give them comfort. Jack Sparrow
506 To a large extent the world seems to conspire against learning. Decision Traps
505 Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills. Minna Antrim
504
We synthesize and integrate new information into old knowledge. Like a glass of
red wine poured into a bowl of clear water, the new blends with the old. Thus, it
becomes impossible to reverse the process. Decision Traps
503
Our minds are not filing cabinets that store information the way it came in. Instead,
we edit the information heavily, cut it up into pieces, and file the edited extracts in
multiple parts of our minds, depending on what they are associated with. Decision Traps
502
We all know the false clarity of hindsight. Events may seem inevitable in hindsight,
even though they might have been very hard to predict beforehand. Decision Traps
501 Victory has a thousand fathers; defeat is an orphan. the Duke of Wellington
500
Because we like to believe that we caused successful outcomes and we like to
rationalize that we weren't responsible when things turned out badly, most people
suffer from an attribution bias that can destroy useful feedback. Decision Traps
499
The illusion of control and accompanying false claims of credit for good outcomes
are firmly rooted biases to allay our deepest fears about an uncontrollable world. Decision Traps
498
...only by recognizing the role of chance in successes can you realistically learn
which of your actions you should carefully repeat and which could be improved.
Falsely claiming credit is an important barrier to learning. Decision Traps
497
Why don't people learn from their experience? For one, the data we receive can
usually be interpreted in more than one way. And even when the evidence is clear
enough that we should be able to learn from it, we are naturally biased to interpret
it in a way that preserves our positive self-image. Decision Traps
496
There is no veiled incantation, magnetic lodestone, patented formula, or arcane
process any one individual can use to move general market prices, because a
market is millions of people interacting for their own personal reasons. Harvey Houtkin
495
As a general rule of thumb, simplicity beats complexity because simplicity travels
light. Jack Sparrow
494 There is always free cheese in a mousetrap. Mark Skousen
493
I've come to the conclusion that using a financial professional to help you invest is
like getting open-heart surgery from a starving lion... Scott Adams
492
If I've learned one thing in this business, it's that the only thing that always goes
higher is the compensation of the investment pros. Jim Sweeney
491
Wall Street research reports are more sales documents than disinterested
analyses... the tendency is for analysts to play up the good and sugar-coat the
bad. Jeffrey Laderman
490
Even the most brilliant mathematical geniuses will never be able to tell us what the
future holds. In the end, what matters is the quality of our decisions in the face of
uncertainty. Peter L. Bernstein
489
Forecasters, by definition, are biased and untrustworthy recorders of current
economic events. In other words, they tend to uncover evidence that supports their
forecasts, and they ignore or analytically dismiss anything that challenges it. John Liscio
488 We are long term investors. We are in this thing for three or four weeks. King of Queens
487
The gutters of Wall Street are strewn with the bodies of people who looked good
for five years. Marty Whitman
486 When all this is behind you, a whole other world will open up for you. Training Day
485 I ain't got time to bleed. Predator
484
The sooner you match what's in your head with what's in the real world, the better
you'll feel. Training Day
483 Open your eyes, son. Can't you see? Training Day
482 He's a high roller, dog. Training Day
481 This is chess, not checkers! Training Day
480 I walk a higher path, son. Training Day
479
People do not learn as easily from experience as you might expect — even
intelligent, highly motivated people. Decision Traps
478
If you understand your biases, know how to create good feedback, and can
interpret feedback realistically, you can consistently turn your experiences into
reliable knowledge — perhaps for the first time. Decision Traps
477
People sometimes stumble over the truth, but usually they pick themselves up and
hurry about their business. Winston Churchill
476
History shows that whenever authorities limit the commitment to a particular value,
it encourages investors to quantify their worst case scenario (which during times of
financial sector strains can be horrific), leading to a panic and meltdown. BCA Research
475
Wall Street dumps so much BS on the public, you need a shovel to clear yourself a
path. Doug Fabian
474
If you ask five experts where to invest, there will be six answers; the five expert
opinions, plus the right one. Jonathon Clements
473
There is no magic wand that anyone can wave to make you successful,
independently wealthy, and completely happy. Harvey Houtkin
472
Investors often develop a cultlike devotion to one investment guru or another. And
when they do so, objectivity goes out the window. Mark Hulbert
471
What do head-and-shoulders formations, bases and pornography have in
common? They are all very difficult to define, even though some stock-market
technical analysts (and judges) are sure they know them when they see them. John Dorfman
470
After-hours trading is like sex in high school: There's a lot of interest in it, but
probably not that many people actually doing it. Peter Di Teresa
469
Relying solely on your quantitative skills to invest successfully is like trying to fly an
airplane based only on an exquisite knowledge of aeronautical engineering,
ignoring the need of real-world flying experience and lacking a good sense of the
fickleness of both aircraft systems and the weather. William J. Bernstein
468
Leveraging gargantuan sums without a proper appreciation of the capriciousness
of the capital markets is the financial equivalent of skydiving while drunk. And if
your models are largely based on the last few years of data, you've just left your
parachute on the plane... William J. Bernstein
467
There was no shortage of terror and despair in the financial markets . . . It was all a
bit reminiscent of the fable about the little boy who cried wolf. By the time one
finally appeared, most people had lost their capacity to believe and be alarmed. Louis Rukeyser
465
People who buy stocks when they get bonuses and sell them when the roof starts
to leak are entrusting their investment decisions to their roofs. Andrew Tobias
464
The lure of online trading seems to be that here is something you can do with no
skill, no knowledge, and yet you can make tons of money. Meir Statman
463
An old-fashioned bear doesn't stab you with a sword, as in the crash of 1987 and
the mini-crash of 1989. It nicks you with a thousand cuts. John Dorfman
462 A funny thing happened on the way to the mortuary. The bull got well. Louis Rukeyser
461
It's heartening to know that some traditions survive on Wall Street. For example,
the idea that bad news for the economy is good news for financial markets. Tom Petruno
460
There is no shortage of media accounts that try to answer our questions about the
market today, but there is a shortage within these accounts of relevant facts or
considered interpretations of them. Many news stories in fact seem to have been
written under a deadline to produce something — anything — to go along with the
numbers from the market. Robert J. Shiller
459
Wall Street is a tough teacher but also a good teacher. If you have any weakness
— arrogance, laziness, stinginess, cowardice, procrastination — the market will
zero in on that weakness and make you pay dearly. Richard Russell
458
In this business, you never stop learning. Let me put it another way. If you stop
learning, you're on your way to going out of business. Richard Russell
457
The situation reminds one of a Ouija board, in which players are encouraged to
interpret the meaning of movements in their trembling hands and to distill forecasts
from them. Or the stock market is seen as an oracle, issuing mysterious and
meaningless pronouncements, which we then ask our leaders to interpret,
mistakenly investing their interpretations with authority. Robert J. Shiller
456
Conventional wisdom interprets the stock market as reacting to new era theories.
In fact, it appears that the stock market often creates new era theories, as
reporters scramble to justify stock market price moves. Robert J. Shiller
455
Sometimes, when you can't figure out a good defense, the best thing to do is to go
on offense. Seth Klarman
454 Yeah, but it's the only game in town! Canada Bill Jones
453
Investors generally overestimate their ability to see the future, and the worst of
them act as if they know exactly what lies ahead. Howard Marks
452
The fact that we don't know where trouble will come from shouldn't allow us to feel
comfortable in times when prices are full. The higher prices are relative to intrinsic
value, the more we should allow for the unknown. Howard Marks
451 Risk means more things can happen than will happen. Elroy Dimson
450
Most people view the future as likely to repeat past patterns, which it may or may
not do. They tend to think of the future in terms of a single scenario, whereas it
really consists of a wide range of possibilities. Howard Marks
449
Investing defensively requires that when everything seems to be going well and
investors are feeling positive, we must sense the implicit danger and prepare for
negative developments. Howard Marks
448
When governments are big issuers of debt, it can be hard for non-government
issuers to raise money. But when governments are big buyers of securities
instead, the capital they inject into the markets can make it easy for others to issue
securities. Howard Marks
447
In the same way that expanded risk tolerance accompanies appreciated past
prices and contributes to the risk of loss, so does risk aversion tend to rise in times
of depressed prices, increasing the risk of missed opportunity. Howard Marks
446 Risk aversion is absolutely essential for the markets to function properly. Howard Marks
445
There are two main risks in the investment world: the risk of losing money and the
risk of missing opportunity. You can completely avoid one or the other, or you can
compromise between the two, but you can't eliminate both. Howard Marks
444
[Strong opinions weakly held] is equally useful for evaluating an already-final
forecast in the face of new information. It sensitizes one to the weak signals of
changes coming over the horizon and keeps the hapless forecaster from becoming
so attached to their model that reality intrudes too late to make a difference. Paul Saffo
443
Eventually your intuition will kick in and a new hypothesis will emerge out of the
rubble, ready to be ruthlessly torn apart once again. You will be surprised by how
quickly the sequence of faulty forecasts will deliver you to a useful result. Paul Saffo
442
Since the mid-1980s, my mantra for this process is 'strong opinions, weakly held.'
Allow your intuition to guide you to a conclusion, no matter how imperfect — this is
the 'strong opinion' part. Then — and this is the 'weakly held' part — prove yourself
wrong. Engage in creative doubt. Paul Saffo
441
Iterate the process a few times, and it is surprising how quickly one can get to a
useful forecast. Paul Saffo
440
Instead of withholding judgment until an exhaustive search for data is complete, I
will force myself to make a tentative forecast based on the information available,
and then systematically tear it apart, using the insights gained to guide my search
for further indicators and information. Paul Saffo
439
Try as one might, when one looks into the future, there is no such thing as
'complete' information, much less a 'complete' forecast. As a consequence, I have
found that the fastest way to an effective forecast is often through a sequence of
lousy forecasts. Paul Saffo
438
The point of forecasting is not to attempt illusory certainty, but to identify the full
range of possible outcomes. Paul Saffo
437 Hold on tightly, let go lightly. Croupier
436
If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. If you
are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve. Lao Tzu
435 If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading. Lao Tzu
434 He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened. Lao Tzu
433
He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is more
powerful still. Lao Tzu
432 He who conquers others is strong; He who conquers himself is mighty. Lao Tzu
431 Man must accept motion. Lao Tzu
430 Want a cookie? Teddy KGB
429 He beet me... Straight up. Pay heem... pay that man his money. Teddy KGB
428
They're trying to goad me, trying to own me. But this isn't a gunfight. It's not about
pride or ego. It's only about money. Mike McDermott
427
Listen, here's the thing. If you can't spot the sucker in the first half hour at the
table, then you ARE the sucker. Mike McDermott
426
You were lookin' for that third three, but you forgot that Professor Green folded on
Fourth Street and now you're representing that you have it. The DA made his two
pair, but he knows they're no good. Judge Kaplan was trying to squeeze out a
diamond flush but he came up short and Mr. Eisen is futilely hoping that his
queens are going to stand up. So like I said, the Dean's bet is $20. Mike McDermott
425 We can't run from who we are. Our destiny chooses us. Mike McDermott
424
For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him, he must regard himself as
greater than he is.
Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe
423
To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not
know, that is true knowledge. Confucius
422
Don't ever let them get into your pocket — that means there's no reason to
leverage substantially. Paul Tudor Jones
421
These days, there are many more deep intellectuals in the business, and that,
coupled with the explosion of information on the internet, creates the illusion that
there is an explanation for everything and that the primary task is simply to find
that explanation. Paul Tudor Jones
420 Do not choose to be wrong for the sake of being different. Lord Samuel
419 A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner. unknown
418
...at the end of the day, your job is to buy what goes up and to sell what goes down
so really who gives a damn about PE's? If it's going up you're supposed to be long
it. But there's no question that it's just easier for me to leverage with some degree
of conviction the short side of some markets. Paul Tudor Jones
416
I think there's a natural progression that everyone goes through. The older you get,
the more you'll realize that a quality life is one that has an extraordinary balance in
it. Paul Tudor Jones
415
When I was younger, I had much greater drawdowns, much greater drawdown
frequency, much greater leverage... I'm probably the exact same trader as I was
15 years ago, it's just less risk, less return. Paul Tudor Jones
414
Everything is a function of leverage, how much of a drawdown are you willing to
tolerate, how much leverage do you want to put on. Paul Tudor Jones
413
...every time I've seen volatility like that, I don't care what the market was, whether
it was soybeans in '76 or '83 or whether it was silver at the top in 1980 or whether
it was some of the biotech stocks at the top earlier in the '90’s, when you get that
kind of volatility you know that generally that's associated with a top. Paul Tudor Jones
412
You look at every bear market and they've always basically occurred because of
an up-tick in inflation and an up-tick in interest rates. Paul Tudor Jones
411
The crash was something that was imminently forecastable to somebody that
understood the measure of derivatives and how large they had grown in such a
relatively short period of time and the impact that it would have on a relatively
unknowing and naïve market. Paul Tudor Jones
410
...at the end of the day, the most important thing is how good are you at risk
control. Ninety-percent of any great trader is going to be the risk control. Paul Tudor Jones
409
It doesn't make any difference whether it's pork bellies or Yahoo. At the end of the
day, it's all the same. You need to understand what factors you need to have at
your disposal to develop a core competency to make a legitimate investment
decision in that particular asset class. Paul Tudor Jones
408
You pick an instrument and there's a whole variety of benchmarks, things that you
look at when trading a particular instrument whether it's a stock or a commodity or
a bond. There's a fundamental information set that you acquire with regard to each
particular asset class and then you overlay a whole host of technical indicators and
that's how you make a decision. Paul Tudor Jones
407
The secret to being successful from a trading perspective is to have an
indefatigable and an undying and unquenchable thirst for information and
knowledge. Because I think there are certain situations where you can absolutely
understand what motivates every buyer and seller and have a pretty good picture
of what's going to happen. And it just requires an enormous amount of grunt work
and dedication to finding all possible bits of information. Paul Tudor Jones
406
You've got to look at good traders historically. If a trader can on average annually
deliver two to three times their worst drawdown, then that's a very good track
record, and I'd say that that's what I try to do. Paul Tudor Jones
405
There's no reason to take substantial amounts of financial risk ever, because you
should always be able to find something where you can skew the reward risk
relationship so greatly in your favor that you can take a variety of small
investments with great reward risk opportunities that should give you minimum
drawdown pain and maximum upside opportunities. Paul Tudor Jones
404
I'd say that my investment philosophy is that I don't take a lot of risk, I look for
opportunities with tremendously skewed reward-risk opportunities. Paul Tudor Jones
403
My grandfather told me at a very early age that you are only worth what you can
write a check for tomorrow... that's one reason that I've always liked the futures
market so much, because you can generally get liquid and be in cash in literally
the space of a few minutes. Paul Tudor Jones
402
I think I am the single most conservative investor on earth in the sense that I
absolutely hate losing money. Paul Tudor Jones
401
We run a laissez-faire, entrepreneurial shop. I started my career in futures, and the
rallying cry was always free markets for free men, so I've tried to create an open
architecture here for traders to test their ideas and thrive. Louis Moore Bacon
400
We kind of had the moniker 'global macro' thrust upon us. We didn't sign up for it.
But I look at it as kind of the 007 license to do whatever we want, and we're in a
period now where globally there is no lack of opportunity... Louis Moore Bacon
399
[Paul Tudor Jones] taught me to think in points, not dollars, and he always used to
say, 'It's just points, it is not money.' He gave me an ongoing tutorial in
disassociating oneself from the result of the trade, yet still having passion about it. Louis Moore Bacon
398
I'll never forget the day the New Orleans Junior League board came to visit [Eli
Tullis] during lunch. He was getting absolutely massacred in the cotton market that
day, but he charmed those little old ladies like he was a movie star. It put
everything in perspective for me. Paul Tudor Jones
397
I lost my stakes a couple of times, which taught me risk control and risk
management. Losing those stakes in my early 20s gave me a healthy dose of fear
and respect for Mr. Market and hardwired me for some great money management
tools. Paul Tudor Jones
396
...the inefficiencies that existed in the '70s and '80s and even the '90s are not as
readily seen. But in this business there will also always be that upper tier — that
top 10 or 20 percent of managers who will outperform everyone else. Paul Tudor Jones
395
The only way to learn how to trade during that last, exquisite third of a move is to
do it, or, more precisely, live it — a sort of baptism by fire. One has to experience
both the elation and fear as markets move five and six standard deviations from
conventional definitions of value. Paul Tudor Jones
394
While I'm a staunch advocate of higher education, there is no training —
classroom or otherwise — that can prepare for trading the last third of a move,
whether it's the end of a bull market or the end of a bear market. There's typically
no logic to it; irrationality reigns supreme, and no class can teach what to do during
that brief, volatile reign. Paul Tudor Jones
393
...technical analysis is at the bottom of the study list for many of the younger
generation, particularly since the skill often requires them to close their eyes and
trust the price action. Paul Tudor Jones
392
I see the younger generation hampered by the need to understand and rationalize
why something should go up or down. Usually, by the time that becomes self-
evident, the move is already over. When I got into the business, there was so little
information on fundamentals, and what little information one could get was largely
imperfect. We learned just to go with the chart. Paul Tudor Jones
391
It's very hard to find a pure fundamentalist who's also a very successful macro
trader... Paul Tudor Jones
390
While I spend a significant amount of my time on analytics and collecting
fundamental information, at the end of the day, I am a slave to the tape and proud
of it. Paul Tudor Jones
389
The inability to read a tape and spot trends is also why so many in the relative
value space who rely solely on fundamentals have been annihilated in the past
decade. Markets have consistently experienced '100-year events' every five years. Paul Tudor Jones
388
When it comes to trading macro, you cannot rely solely on fundamentals; you have
to be a tape reader, which is something of a lost art form. Paul Tudor Jones
387
When trading macro, you never have a complete information set or information
edge the way analysts can have when trading individual securities. It's a hell of a
lot easier to get an information edge on one stock than it is on the S&P 500. Paul Tudor Jones
386
I love trading macro. If trading is like chess, then macro is like three-dimensional
chess. It is just hard to find a great macro trader. Paul Tudor Jones
385 Tacit assumptions have sunk many boats in the world of science and engineering. Jon Kabat-Zinn
384
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposite ideas in mind
at the same time and still retain the ability to function. F. Scott Fitzgerald
383
Losing money is the least of my troubles. A loss never bothers me after I take it. I
forget it overnight. But being wrong — not taking the loss — that is what does
damage to the pocketbook and to the soul.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
382
As far as my trading went, having a million merely meant more reserves. Money
does not give a trader more comfort, because, rich or poor, he can make mistakes
and it is never comfortable to be wrong. And when a millionaire is right his money
is merely one of his several servants.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
381
Of course, if a man is wise and lucky, he will not make the same mistake twice. But
he will make any one of the ten thousand brothers or cousins of the original. The
Mistake family is so large that there is always one of them around when you want
to see what you can do in the fool-play line.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
379
The recognition of our own mistakes should not benefit us any more than the study
of our successes. But there is a natural tendency in all men to avoid punishment.
When you associate certain mistakes with a licking, you do not hanker for a
second dose, and, of course, all stock market mistakes wound you in two tender
spots — your pocketbook and your vanity.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
378
Well, I was worth over one million after the close of business that day. But my
biggest winnings were not in dollars but in the intangibles: I had been right, I had
looked ahead and followed a clear-cut plan. I had learned what a man must do in
order to make big money; I was permanently out of the gambler class; I had at last
learned to trade intelligently in a big way. It was a day of days for me.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
377
That was the day I remember most vividly of all the days of my life as a stock
operator. It was the day when my winnings exceeded one million dollars.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
376
I also had found out that nobody was immune from the danger of making sucker
plays. And for a sucker play a man gets sucker pay; for the paymaster is on the job
and never loses the pay envelope that is coming to you.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
375
In short, I had learned that I had to work for my money. I was no longer betting
blindly or concerned with mastering the technique of the game, but with earning
my successes by hard study and clear thinking.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
374
I still had much to learn but I knew what to do. No more floundering, no more half-
right methods. Tape reading was an important part of the game; so was beginning
at the right time; so was sticking to your position. But my greatest discovery was
that a man must study general conditions, to size them so as to be able to
anticipate probabilities.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
373
The big men of the Street are as prone to be wishful thinkers as the politicians or
the plain suckers. I myself can't work that way. In a speculator such an attitude is
fatal. Perhaps a manufacturer of securities or a promoter of new enterprises can
afford to indulge in hope-jags.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
372
The way to make money is to make it. The way to make big money is to be right at
exactly the right time. In this business a man has to think of both theory and
practice. A speculator must not be merely a student, he must be both a student
and a speculator.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
371
What happened shows you that I am right in never trading at limits. Suppose I had
limited my selling price to 300? I'd never have got it off. No, sir! When you want to
get out, get out.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
370
You ought to have seen that cornered stock, that it was sure suicide to go short of,
take a headlong dive when those competitive orders struck it. I let 'em have a few
thousand more. The price was 111 when I started selling it. Within a few minutes I
took in my entire short line at 92.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
369
I was not pitting my tape-reading knack or my hunches against chance. The
inexorable logic of events was making money for me.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
368
But I can tell you after the market began to go my way I felt for the first time in my
life that I had allies — the strongest and truest in the world: underlying conditions.
They were helping me with all their might. Perhaps they were a trifle slow at times
in bringing up the reserves, but they were dependable, provided I did not get too
impatient.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
367
It was very curious how, after suffering tremendous losses from a break of fifteen
or twenty points, people who were still hanging on, welcomed a three point rally
and were certain the bottom had been reached and complete recovery begun.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
366
If a man didn't make mistakes he'd own the world in a month. But if he didn't profit
by his mistakes he wouldn't own a blessed thing.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
365
That is what happened. I didn't wait to determine whether or not the time was right
for plunging on the bear side. On the one occasion when I should have invoked the
aid of my tape-reading I didn't do it. That is how I came to learn that even when
one is properly bearish at the very beginning of a bear market it is well not to begin
selling in bulk until there is no danger of the engine back-firing.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
364
I was too eager to prove to myself that I had seen real dollars and not a mirage. I
saw, and knew that I saw. Thinking about the reward for my excellent sight kept
me from considering the distance to the dollar-heap. I should have walked and not
sprinted.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
363
If you begin right you will not see your profitable position seriously menaced; and
then you will find no trouble in sitting tight.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
362
Thus I eventually discovered that it was all very well not to lose your bear position
in a bear market, but that at all times the tape should be read to determine the
propitiousness of the time for operating.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
361 I have always found it profitable to study my mistakes.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
360
I had made a mistake. But where? I was bearish in a bear market. That was wise. I
had sold stocks short. That was proper. I had sold them too soon. That was costly.
My position was right but my play was wrong.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
359
It was a perfectly natural oversight. I had to pay the usual tuition — a good whack
per each step forward.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
358
For years I had been the victim of an unfortunate combination of inexperience,
youth and insufficient capital. But now I felt the elation of a discoverer.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
357
Obviously the thing to do was to be bullish in a bull market and bearish in a bear
market. Sounds silly, doesn't it? But I had to grasp that general principle firmly
before I saw that to put it into practice really meant to anticipate probabilities. It
took me a long time to learn to trade on those lines.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
356
To be angry at the market because it unexpectedly or even illogically goes against
you is like getting mad at your lungs because you have pneumonia.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
355
I do not allow my possessions — or my prepossessions either — to do my thinking
for me. That is why I repeat that I never argue with the tape.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
354 My one steadfast prejudice is against being wrong.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
353 I never want to buy stocks too cheap or too easily.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
352
…the point is not so much to buy as cheap as possible or go short at the top
prices, but to buy or sell at the right time.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
351
From then on I began to think of basic conditions instead of individual stocks. I
promoted myself to a higher grade in the hard school of speculation. It was a long
and difficult step to take.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
350
I found when I got my reports that Ed Harding's kindly intentional interference cost
me forty thousand dollars. A low price for a man to pay for not having the courage
of his own convictions! It was a cheap lesson.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
349
I have noticed that there is quite a difference between talking and trading. Some of
these chaps remind you of the bold clerk who talks to his cantankerous employer
as to a yellow dog — when he tells you about it.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
348
The next day we got news of the San Francisco earthquake. It was an awful
disaster. But the market opened down only a couple of points. The bull forces were
at work, and the public is never independently responsive to news.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
347
I have told some of these stories to friends, and some of them tell me it isn't a
hunch but the subconscious mind, which is the creative mind, at work. That is the
mind which makes artists do things without their knowing how they came to do
them. Perhaps with me it was the cumulative effect of a lot of little things
individually insignificant but collectively powerful.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
346
I have been short one hundred thousand shares and seen a big rally coming. I
have figured — and figured correctly — that such a rally as I felt was inevitable,
and even wholesome, would make a difference of one million dollars in paper
profits. And I nevertheless have stood pat and seen half my paper profit wiped out,
without once considering the advisability of covering my shorts to put them out
again on the rally. I knew that if I did I might lose my position and with it the
certainty of a big killing. It is the big swing that makes the big money for you.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
345
I can wait without a twinge of impatience. I can see a setback without being
shaken, knowing that it is only temporary.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
344
Without faith in his own judgment no man can go very far in this game. That is
about all I have learned — to study general conditions, to take a position and stick
with it.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
343
One of the most helpful things that anybody can learn is to give up trying to catch
the last eighth — or the first. These two are the most expensive eighths in the
world. They have cost stock traders, in the aggregate, enough millions of dollars to
build a concrete highway across the continent.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
342
You have to use your brains and your vision to do this; otherwise my advice would
be as idiotic as to tell you to buy cheap and sell dear.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
341
Disregarding the big swing and trying to jump in and out was fatal to me. Nobody
can catch all the fluctuations. In a bull market your game is to buy and hold until
you believe that the bull market is near its end. To do this you must study general
conditions and not tips or special factors affecting individual stocks.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
340
It is literally true that millions come easier to a trader after he knows how to trade
than hundreds did in the days of his ignorance.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
339
Men who can both be right and sit tight are uncommon. I found it one of the
hardest things to learn. But it is only after a stock operator has firmly grasped this
that he can make big money.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
338
And right here let me say one thing: After spending many years in Wall Street and
after making and losing millions of dollars I want to tell you this: It never was my
thinking that made the big money for me. It was always my sitting. Got that? My
sitting tight!
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
337
I think it was a long step forward in my trading education when I realized at last
that when old Mr. Partridge kept on telling the other customers, 'Well, you know
this is a bull market!' he really meant to tell them that the big money was not in the
individual fluctuations but in the main movements — that is, not in reading the tape
but in sizing up the entire market and its trend.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
336
Time and again I heard him say, 'Well, this is a bull market, you know!' as though
he were giving you a priceless talisman wrapped up in a million-dollar accident
insurance policy. And of course I did not get his meaning.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
335
It is naturally the semisucker who is always quoting the famous trading aphorisms
and the various rules of the game. He knows all the don'ts that ever fell from the
oracular lips of the old sages — excepting the principal one, which is: Don't be a
sucker!
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
334
The tyro knows nothing, and everybody, including himself, knows it. But the next,
or second, grade thinks he knows a great deal and makes others feel that way too.
He is the experienced sucker, who has studied — not the market itself but a few
remarks about the market made by a still higher grade of suckers.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
333
They say you never grow poor taking profits. No, you don't. But neither do you
grow rich taking a four point profit in a bull market.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
332 There was as much to learn from partial victory as there was from defeat.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
331
It was the change in my own attitude toward the game that was of supreme
importance to me. It taught me, little by little, the essential difference between
betting on fluctuations and anticipating inevitable advances and declines, between
gambling and speculating.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
330
I had to start much earlier if I wanted to catch the move in Fullerton's office. In
other words, I had to study what was going to happen; to anticipate stock
movements. That sounds asininely commonplace, but you know what I mean.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
329
I was doing better than breaking even and that is why I didn't think there was any
need to deprive myself of the good things in life. The market was always there to
supply them. I was acquiring the confidence that comes to a man from a
professionally dispassionate attitude toward his own method of providing bread
and butter for himself.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
328
I know now what I did not know then, and I think of the mistakes of my ignorance
because those are the very mistakes that the average stock speculator makes
year in and year out.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
327
But not even a world war can keep the stock market from being a bull market when
conditions are bullish, or a bear market when conditions are bearish. And all a man
needs to know to make money is to appraise conditions.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
325
There is what I call the behavior of a stock, actions that enable you to judge
whether or not it is going to proceed in accordance with the precedents that your
observation has noted. If a stock doesn't act right don't touch it; because, being
unable to tell precisely what is wrong, you cannot tell which way it is going. No
diagnosis, no prognosis. No prognosis, no profit.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
324
After all, the game of speculation isn't all mathematics or set rules, however rigid
the main laws may be. Even in my tape reading something enters that is more than
mere arithmetic.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
323
The average ticker hound — or, as they used to call him, tape-worm — goes
wrong, I suspect, as much from overspecialization as from anything else. It means
a highly expensive inelasticity.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
322
There is nothing like losing all you have in the world for teaching you what not to
do. And when you know what not to do in order not to lose money, you begin to
learn what to do in order to win. Did you get that? You begin to learn!
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
321
The manager was a chap who looked as if he had been an actor or a stump
speaker. He was very impressive. He'd say good morning as though he had
discovered the morning's goodness after ten years of searching for it with a
microscope and was making you a present of the discovery as well as of the sky,
the sun and the firm's bank roll.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
320
He figured that I was a permanent sucker, the ticker-hound kind that always plays
and always loses; a steady-income provider for brokers, whether they were the
kind that bucket your orders or modestly content themselves with the
commissions.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
319
My old shotgun and BB shot could not do the work of a high power repeating rifle
against big game.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
318
The ticker beat me by lagging so far behind the market… it seems so obvious now
that tape reading is not enough, irrespective of the brokers' execution, that I
wonder why I didn't then see both my trouble and the remedy for it.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
317
It's the guessing that develops a man's brain power. Just consider what you have
to do to guess right.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
316
If the unusual never happened there would be no difference in people and then
there wouldn't be any fun in life. The game would become merely a matter of
addition and subtraction. It would make of us a race of bookkeepers with plodding
minds.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
315
Speculation is a hard and trying business, and a speculator must be on the job all
the time or he'll soon have no job to be on.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
314
It took me five years to learn to play the game intelligently enough to make big
money when I was right.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
313
My losses have taught me that I must not begin to advance until I am sure I shall
not have to retreat. But if I cannot advance I do not move at all.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
312
I have heard of people who amuse themselves conducting imaginary operations in
the stock market to prove with imaginary dollars how right they are. Sometimes
these ghost gamblers make millions. It is very easy to be a plunger that way.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
311
They say there are two sides to everything. But there is only one side to the stock
market; and it is not the bull side or the bear side, but the right side.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
310 It takes a man a long time to learn all the lessons of his mistakes.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
309 A stock operator has to fight a lot of expensive enemies within himself.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
308
No man can always have adequate reasons for buying or selling stocks daily — or
sufficient knowledge to make his play an intelligent play.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
307
There is a time for all things, but I didn't know it. And that is precisely what beats
so many men in Wall Street who are very far from being in the main sucker class.
There is the plain fool, who does the wrong thing at all times everywhere, but there
is the Wall Street fool, who thinks he must trade all the time.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
306
If all I have is ten dollars and I risk it, I am much braver than when I risk a million, if
I have another million salted away.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
305 That's all the fun there is — being right by using your own head.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
304
It struck me at once that if my dope didn't work in practice there was nothing in the
theory of it to interest anybody.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
303
Your business with the tape is now — not tomorrow. The reason can wait. But you
must act instantly or be left.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
302
Another lesson I learned early is that there is nothing new in Wall Street. There
can't be because speculation is as old as the hills. Whatever happens in the stock
market today has happened before and will happen again.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
301
My tremendous intuitive sense of the female creature informs me that you are
troubled. Jack Sparrow
300 Now... bring me that horizon. Jack Sparrow
299 Time to nut up or shut up. Zombieland
298
Vision is the greatest of talents, because it looks so much like magic. We see it in
sports, when a basketball player surprises an entire arena by delivering a last-
second pass to a waiting teammate. Or in business when a smart investor spots a
tiny, vital pattern and leverages it to a massive advantage. Vision dwarfs other
talents like accuracy, persistence, and strength because it operates on a higher
plane. It changes the game by creating new opportunities where none existed. Daniel Coyle
297
Myths and legends die hard in America. We love them for the extra dimension they
provide, the illusion of near-infinite possibility to erase the narrow confines of most
men's reality. Weird heroes and mould-breaking champions exist as living proof to
those who need it that the tyranny of 'the rat race' is not yet final. Hunter S. Thompson
296
The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind
of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a
long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs,
for no good reason. Hunter S. Thompson
295
The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really
know where it is are the ones who have gone over. Hunter S. Thompson
294 Buy the ticket, take the ride. Hunter S. Thompson
293 When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. Hunter S. Thompson
292
The history of every industrious and commercial community, under a stable
government, will present successive alternate periods of credit and distrust,
following each other with a good deal of regularity.
Encyclopedia
Americana, 1838
Edition
291
I write to keep from going mad from the contradictions I find among mankind —
and to work some of those contradictions out for myself. Michel de Montaigne
290
I'm beginning to think these are not perfect storms. I'm beginning to think these are
regular storms and we have a shitty boat. Jon Stewart
289 I make many changes, and reject and try again, until I am satisfied. Ludwig Van Beethoven
288
An excellent decision maker and a bad decision maker will both make mistakes.
The difference is what causes them to make mistakes and the frequency of their
mistakes. Ray Dalio
287
Intelligent people who are open to recognizing and learning from their mistakes
substantially outperform people with the same abilities who aren't open in the
same way. Yet it is far more common for people to let their egos stand in the way
of learning. Ray Dalio
286 If you don't mind being wrong on the way to being right, you will learn a lot. Ray Dalio
285
Recognize that you will certainly make mistakes; so will those around you and
those who work for you. And what matters is how you deal with them. If you treat
mistakes as learning opportunities that can yield rapid improvement if handled
well, you will be excited by them. Ray Dalio
284
There is no worse course in leadership than to hold out false hopes soon to be
swept away. Winston Churchill
283
Your ability to see the changing landscape and adapt is more a function of your
perceptive and reasoning abilities than your ability to learn and process quickly. Ray Dalio
282
It's not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but those most
able to adapt. Charles Darwin
281
Of all the mysteries of the stock exchange there is none so impenetrable as why
there should be a buyer for everyone who seeks to sell. October 24, 1929 showed
that what is mysterious is not inevitable. Often there were no buyers, and only after
wide vertical declines could anyone be induced to bid ... Repeatedly and in many
issues there was a plethora of selling orders and no buyers at all.
John Kenneth
Galbraith
280
Volatility is greatest at turning points, and diminishes as a [new] trend is
established. George Soros
279 Trust, but verify. Damon Runyon
278
One of these days in your travels, a guy is going to come up to you and show you
a nice brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is not yet broken, and this guy is
going to offer to bet you that he can make the Jack of Spades jump out of the deck
and squirt cider in your ear. But, son, do not bet this man, for as sure as you are
standing there, you are going to end up with an earful of cider. Damon Runyon
277
The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong... but that's the way
to bet. Damon Runyon
276 Brick by brick, my citizens, brick by brick. Hadrian
275
Robust demand is the only thing that holds prices from falling vertically in the face
of eager selling. Overvalued, overbought, overbullish markets are often already
spent of that demand. John Hussman
274
Perhaps the single most important factor was that I had a great passion for the
game. I think almost anyone can be net profitable in the stock market given
enough time and effort, but to be a great trader, you have to have a passion for it.
You have to love trading. Mark Minervini
273
Everyone, from the greatest genius to the most ordinary clerk, has to adopt mental
frameworks that simplify and structure the information encountered in the world. Decision Traps
272 Seek simplicity, then distrust it.
Alfred North
Whitehead
271 Patience is required most when one desires to apply it least. Jack Sparrow
270
The truly skilled poker player — and all the more so the truly skilled trader — is not
just a fighter. He is also an artist, a statistician, and a student of human nature, all
rolled into one. Jack Sparrow
269
You must learn to allow patience and stillness to take over from anxiety and frantic
activity... The good player is patient. He is observant, controlling his patience, and
organizing his composure. When he sees an opportunity, he explodes. Jim Lau
268
There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom expansion brought
about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come
sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or
later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved. Ludwig Von Mises
267 Where are the customers' yachts? Fred Schwed
266
Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is
vital. Aaron Levenstein
265
Nobody on Wall Street has a monopoly on truth. Market strategists don't. Money
managers and investment-newsletter writers don't. Brokers, financial planners and
insurance agents don't. Newpaper columnists don't. So treat all financial advice
with caution. Look at every investment and every investment strategy with
profound skepticism. Think long and hard about every financial myth. Jonathon Clements
264
Professional investment may be likened to those newspaper competitions in which
the competitors have to pick out the six prettiest faces from a hundred
photographs, the prize being awarded to the competitor whose choice most nearly
corresponds to the average preferences of the competitors as a whole; so that
each competitor has to pick, not those faces which he himself finds prettiest, but
those which he thinks likeliest to catch the fancy of the other competitors, all of
whom are looking at the problem from the same point of view. John Maynard Keynes
263
Investing on raw momentum — buying stocks that are going up, just because they
are going up — used to be considered as unsophisticated as picking your nose in
public. Now, many people consider it a legitimate school of investing. John Dorfman
262
It's almost as if we've seen the emergence of a new life form, the Robo-Trader, a
mutant strain of investor who grazes on information from CNBC and regurgitates it
in the form of online trades. Walter Updegrave
261
The tribe has spoken, and in accordance with the island's long-standing tradition,
the bears have again been banished. Louis Rukeyser
260
Progress does not march forward like an army on parade; it crawls on its belly like
a guerrilla. Michael Lewis
259
It was a Fred Flintstone kind of quarter. At times, it seemed like many stocks and
funds were just spinning their feet and wheels like Fred does whenever he peels
out in his Stone-Age sedan. Dan Culloton
258
For professional investors like myself, a sense of humor is essential . . . We are
very aware that we are competing not only against the market averages but also
against one another. It's an intense rivalry. Ralph Wanger
257 Don't be a hero. Don't have an ego. Paul Tudor Jones
256
The market has no respect for your station in life or for how smart an investor you
have been until now. In fact, the market in this incarnation most prefers to
humiliate those who remain smug or who appear to be telling it what to do and
when to do it. Tom Petruno
254
In bull markets, people have faith; in bear markets, doubt. The other way around
might be more profitable. James Grant
253 This sucker could go down. George W. Bush
251 Pigs get fat but hogs get slaughtered. Wall Street proverb
250 A rolling loan gathers no loss. Wall Street proverb
248
They promise the blessings of the Garden of Eden, but they plan to transform the
world into a gigantic post office. Every man but a subordinate clerk in a bureau.
What an alluring utopia! What a noble cause to fight! Ludwig Von Mises
247
Against all this frenzy of agitation there is but one weapon available: reason. Just
common sense is needed to prevent man from falling prey to illusory fantasies and
empty catchwords. Ludwig Von Mises
246 If I say it's safe to surf this beach, Captain, then it's safe to surf this beach! Colonel Kilgore
245 I love the smell of napalm in the morning. Colonel Kilgore
244
...for a certain group of cynics with a penchant for quality, the sound of a stock
crashing nicely will evoke a knowing and whimsical smile.
The Art of Short
Selling
243
To enjoy the advantages of a free market, one must have both buyers and sellers,
both bulls and bears. A market without bears would be like a nation without a free
press. There would be no one to criticize and restrain the false optimism that
always leads to disaster. Bernard Baruch
242
Bulls always have been more popular than bears in this country because optimism
is so strong a part of our heritage. Still, over-optimism is capable of doing more
damage than pessimism since caution tends to be thrown aside. Bernard Baruch
241
Bears can only make money if the bulls push up stocks to where they are
overpriced and unsound. Bernard Baruch
240 Life's a bitch... and she's back in heat. They Live
239 Never mistake a clear view for a short distance. Paul Saffo
238
Outside the limit of our sight, feeding off us, perched on top of us, from birth to
death, are our owners! Our owners! They have us. They control us! They are our
masters! Wake up! They're all about you! All around you! They Live
237 The world needs a wake up call, gentlemen... We're gonna phone it in. They Live
236 You... You look like your face fell in the cheese dip back in 1957. They Live
235 I've come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum. They Live
234 If they're going to get my money, it'll be like getting nibbled to death by ducks. unknown
233
So let us then try to climb the mountain, not by stepping on what is below us, but to
pull us up at what is above us, for my part at the stars; amen. M.C. Escher
231
I believe that producing pictures, as I do, is almost solely a question of wanting so
very much to do it well. M.C. Escher
229 There has to be a certain enigma in it, which does not immediately catch the eye. M.C. Escher
228 We adore chaos because we love to produce order. M.C. Escher
226
I try in my prints to testify that we live in a beautiful and orderly world, not in a
chaos without norms, even though that is how it sometimes appears. M.C. Escher
224
What I give form to in daylight is only one per cent of what I have seen in
darkness. M.C. Escher
223 I don't grow up. In me is the small child of my early days. M.C. Escher
221 He who wonders discovers that this, in itself, is wonder. M.C. Escher
220 My work is a game, a very serious game. M.C. Escher
217
This is not my vessel. My vessel is magnificent, and fierce and huge-ish and gone.
Why is it gone? Jack Sparrow
214
When you marooned me on that god forsaken spit of land, you forgot one very
important thing mate: I’m Captain Jack Sparrow. Jack Sparrow
213
Worry about your own fortunes gentlemen. The deepest circle of hell is reserved
for betrayers and mutineers. Jack Sparrow
212
I think we've all arrived at a very special place. Spiritually, ecumenically,
grammatically. Jack Sparrow
211
The only rules that really matter are these: What a man can do and what a man
can't do. Jack Sparrow
210
It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out
the useful ones. Sherlock Holmes
209
Given the uncertain nature of the future, and thus the difficulty of being confident
your position is the right one—especially as price moves against you—it's
challenging to be a lonely contrarian. Howard Marks
208
Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon
or to the first comer: there is nobility in preserving it coolly and proudly. George Santayana
207
You become a champion by fighting one more round. When things are tough, you
fight one more round. Gentleman Jim Corbett
206
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without
accepting it. Aristotle
205
There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. Some kind of high powered mutant
never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die. Hunter S. Thompson
204
A good fight should be like a small play, but played seriously. A good martial artist
does not become tense, but ready; not thinking, yet not dreaming—ready for
whatever may come. When the opponent expands I contract and when he
contracts I expand, and when there is a moment to strike, I do not hit—it hits all by
itself. Bruce Lee
203
The great danger for most of us lies in not setting our aim too high and falling
short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark. Michelangelo
202 You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf. Jon Kabat-Zinn
201
First, you decide what you want specifically; and second, you decide if you're
willing to pay the price to make it happen, and then pay that price. Nelson Bunker Hunt
200
Winning is hard to do, and there's a price that you pay for it. And that's how I saw
Michael as a player — as someone that wanted to prove he's a winner every day. Scottie Pippen
199
The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly
salary. Nassim Taleb
197
When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully
upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.
Alexander Graham
Bell
196 Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits. Thomas Edison
194 The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil. Thomas Edison
193 A problem well stated is a problem half-solved. Charles Kettering
192
Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn
until brought to a focus.
Alexander Graham
Bell
191
Opportunity is missed by most people because it usually goes around wearing
overalls looking like hard work. Thomas Edison
190 Wisdom consists of seeing many things and concentrating on one thing. Dickson G. Watts
189 Seeing things in their right relation to each other is the highest vision. Dickson G. Watts
188
Many men have the 'courage of their opinions,' few the courage to abandon
opinions. Dickson G. Watts
187
Man begins in simplicity, advances to complexity, returns to simplicity. The last is
complexity reduced to the fewer terms. Dickson G. Watts
186 Learn principles. Facts will then fall into their relations and connections. Dickson G. Watts
185 Genius consists of seeing instantly the vital point. Dickson G. Watts
184 Fools try to prove that they are right. Wise men try to find when they are wrong. Dickson G. Watts
183 Don't storm the fortress of fortune—lay siege to it. Dickson G. Watts
182
If only we could be like water. When water moves, it follows the path of least
resistance. Water would be good at poker. Tommy Angelo
181
If you have an inflexible image in your mind of an opponent, then whenever he
changes, your evaluation of him will be wrong. If you have an inflexible image in
your mind of yourself, then whenever you change, your evaluation of yourself will
be wrong. For up-to-date evaluation, there is no time but the present. Tommy Angelo
180
If we carry in our mind a false image of ourselves, and that image gives us
confidence, and the confidence itself increases the probability that we will
procreate, then it doesn't matter that the image is false. Delusion will be naturally
selected. Tommy Angelo
179 A good anticipator foresees all pertinent paths without attaching to any of them. Tommy Angelo
178
Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond
the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man,
believe that it is within your own compass also. Marcus Aurelius
176
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve
neither liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin
175
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it
incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies. Groucho Marx
174
I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26
times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over
and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. Michael Jordan
173
I loved the night. I think secretly all scientists exult in working alone, surrounded by
the urgent private quiet of the dark. To be doing something no one had ever
done... to be alone and out on the edge like that, there was no feeling like it in the
world. Steven Rosenberg
172
Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is
more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded
genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated
derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. Calvin Coolidge
171
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely
foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. Douglas Adams
170 The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly. Friedrich Nietzsche
169
If we did all the things we were capable of doing, we would literally astound
ourselves. Thomas Edison
168 Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see. Arthur Schopenhauer
167
Maybe, just once, someone will call me 'Sir' without adding, 'You're making a
scene.' Homer J. Simpson
166
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't
do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe
harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. Mark Twain
165
The market is a mathematical hypothesis. The best solutions to it are the elegant
and the simple. George Soros
164
I knew that if I ever went broke at poker, it wouldn't be because my best wasn't
good enough to keep me afloat. It'd be because my worst was bad enough to sink
me. Tommy Angelo
163
The best way to get better at poker is to get better at everything and let poker rise
with the tide. Tommy Angelo
162
I learned to approach racing like a game of billiards. If you bash the ball too hard,
you get nowhere. As you handle the cue properly, you drive with more finesse. Juan Manuel Fangio
161 Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide. Napoleon
160 Well-bred instinct meets reason halfway. George Santayana
159
One machine can do the work of 50 ordinary men. No machine can do the work of
one extraordinary man. Elbert Hubbard
158
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because
we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted
rightly. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. Aristotle
157
Intuition and concepts constitute... the elements of all our knowledge, so that
neither concepts without an intuition in some way corresponding to them, nor
intuition without concepts, can yield knowledge. Immanuel Kant
156
There is no logical way to the discovery of these elemental laws. There is only the
way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order lying behind the
appearance. Albert Einstein
155 Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors. Ludwig Van Beethoven
154 Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next. Jonas Salk
153
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We
have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. Albert Einstein
152 Genius is infinite patience. Michelangelo
151 Rare is the blessing that bears no resemblance to curse. Jack Sparrow
150
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is
shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods. Albert Einstein
149
A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants
on. Winston Churchill
148
So long as I am acting from duty and conviction, I am indifferent to taunts and
jeers. I think they will probably do me more good than harm. Winston Churchill
147
Continuous effort—not strength or intelligence—is the key to unlocking our
potential. Winston Churchill
146
There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are
shown, those who do not see. Leonardo da Vinci
145 The truth of things is the chief nutriment of superior intellects. Leonardo da Vinci
144 The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding. Leonardo da Vinci
143 The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions. Leonardo da Vinci
142
I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must
apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do. Leonardo da Vinci
141
He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without
rudder and compass, and never knows where he may cast. Leonardo da Vinci
140
Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his
intelligence; he is just using his memory. Leonardo da Vinci
139
Existence is a strange bargain. Life owes us little; we owe it everything. The only
true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose. William Cowper
137 The empires of the future are the empires of the mind. Winston Churchill
136
It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be
handled at a time. Winston Churchill
135 Out of intense complexities, intense simplicities emerge. Winston Churchill
134
The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were
invaluable at first and deadly afterwards. Walter Bagehot
133 Every time history repeats itself, the price goes up. unknown
132 By doubting, we come to examine, and by examining, so we perceive the truth. Peter Abelard
129 He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence. William Blake
128 I must create a system or be enslaved by another man's. William Blake
127
Mediocre people are always at their best; they climb molehills without breaking a
sweat. unknown
126 A true craftsman never stands for wrinkles in the duct tape. unknown
123
A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and
there is an invisible labor. Victor Hugo
122 Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact. William James
121 All life is an experiment. Oliver Wendell Holmes
120
In times of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned
usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists. Oliver Wendell Holmes
119 Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.
Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe
118 Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Khalil Gibran
117
One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a
very long time. Andre Gide
116 The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators. Edward Gibbon
115 I love it when a plan comes together. The A-Team
114 You shall judge a man by his foes as well as his friends. Joseph Conrad
113
I had ambition not only to go farther than any man had ever been before, but as far
as it was possible for a man to go. Joseph Conrad
112
To have his path made clear for him is the aspiration of every human being in our
beclouded and tempestuous existence. Joseph Conrad
111 It is the mark of an inexperienced man not to believe in luck. Joseph Conrad
110
I don't like work. But I like what is in work—the chance to find yourself. Your own
reality—for yourself, not for others—which no other man can ever know. Joseph Conrad
109
All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of
their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day
are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it
possible. T.E. Lawrence
108
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred
by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly… who knows the great
enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at
best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at
least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and
timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. Teddy Roosevelt
107
Mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible and without desire.
The reality of your own nature should determine the speed. If you become restless,
speed up. If you become winded, slow down. You climb the mountain in an
equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion. Then, when you're no longer
thinking ahead, each footstep isn't just a means to an end but a unique event in
itself. Robert Pirsig
106
To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain which
sustain life, not the top. Here's where things grow. But of course, without the top
you can't have any sides. It's the top that defines the sides. Robert Pirsig
105
There is only one thing for it then—to learn. Learn why the world wags and what
wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate,
never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting.
The Once and Future
King
104
Within their areas of competence, experts have many more categories of
awareness than novices. The perception of subtleties is what Michael Jordan,
Warren Buffett, and Yo-Yo Ma have in common. Lee Humphries
103 Specialization is for insects. Robert A. Heinlein
102
The height of cultivation is really nothing special. It is merely simplicity; the ability
to express the utmost with the minimum. It is the halfway cultivation that leads to
ornamentation. Bruce Lee
101
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and
deserve to get it good and hard. H.L. Mencken
100 Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under. H.L. Mencken
98
When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes
turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long to return. Leonardo da Vinci
97
A bureaucrat is the most despicable of men, though he is needed as vultures are
needed, but one hardly admires vultures whom bureaucrats so strangely resemble.
I have yet to meet a bureaucrat who was not petty, dull, almost witless, crafty or
stupid, an oppressor or a thief, a holder of little authority in which he delights, as a
boy delights in possessing a vicious dog. Who can trust such creatures? Cicero
96
The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them,
glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it. Thucydides
95
The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done
by cowards and its fighting by fools. Thucydides
94
Those who make wise decisions are more formidable to their enemies than those
who rush madly into strong action. Thucydides
91
I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you
half as well as you deserve. Bilbo Baggins
89
Dark forces dragged me away from the keyboard, swirling forces of irresistible
intensity and power. Boris Johnson
87
For a sucessful technology, honesty must take precedence over public
relations—for nature cannot be fooled. Richard Feynman
86
There's no sense being exact about something if you don't even know what you're
talking about. John von Neumann
85
Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad
judgment. Fred Brooks
84 I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable. Dwight D. Eisenhower
83
The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary
may speak. Hans Hoffman
82 Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Leonardo da Vinci
81
Increasingly, people seem to misinterpret complexity as sophistication, which is
baffling — the incomprehensible should cause suspicion rather than admiration.
Possibly this trend results from a mistaken belief that using a somewhat
mysterious device confers an aura of power on the user. Niklaus Wirth
80 Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence. Napoleon
79
My friends, as I have discovered myself, there are no disasters, only opportunities.
And, indeed, opportunities for fresh disasters. Boris Johnson
78
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I
repeat myself. Mark Twain
77
The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is
the chief occupation of mankind. H.L. Mencken
76
It is not materialism that is the chief curse of the world, as pastors teach, but
idealism. Men get into trouble by taking their visions and hallucinations too
seriously. H.L. Mencken
75
The secret of joy in work is contained in one word — excellence. To know how to
do something well is to enjoy it. Pearl S. Buck
74
A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy
crazier. H.L. Mencken
73 For every complex problem, there is a solution that is neat, simple, and wrong. H.L. Mencken
72 It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull. H.L. Mencken
71
A child-like man is not a man whose development has been arrested; on the
contrary, he is a man who has given himself a chance of continuing to develop
long after most adults have muffled themselves in the cocoon of middle-aged habit
and convention. Aldous Huxley
70
Be formless… shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the
cup. You put water into a bottle; it becomes the bottle. You put it into a teapot; it
becomes the teapot. Water can flow, and it can crash. Be like water my friend. Bruce Lee
69
He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my
contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal
cord would fully suffice. Albert Einstein
68
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries,
is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny…' Isaac Asimov
67
After a certain high level of technical skill is achieved, science and art tend to
coalesce in aesthetics, plasticity, and form. The greatest scientists are artists as
well. Albert Einstein
66
It is nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of education have not yet
entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry… It is a very grave mistake to think
that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion
and a sense of duty. Albert Einstein
65 Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. Albert Einstein
64
The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to
remain children all our lives. Albert Einstein
63
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure
about the former. Albert Einstein
62
All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for
development accorded the individual. Albert Einstein
61 The important thing is to never stop questioning. Albert Einstein
60
I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my
life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity. Oliver Wendell Holmes
59
We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth
will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the
right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely. E.O. Wilson
58
Sometimes a concept is baffling not because it is profound, but because it is
wrong. E.O. Wilson
56
In a purely technical sense, each species of higher organism is richer in
information than a Caravaggio painting, Bach fugue, or any other great work of art. E.O. Wilson
55 The wolf careth not, how many the sheep be. Virgil
54 A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves. Bertrand de Jouvenel
53 Simplify, simplify, simplify. Henry David Thoreau
52 Things should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. Albert Einstein
51 A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. Chinese proverb
50 So I got that goin' for me, which is nice. Caddyshack
49
Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly; Man got to sit and wonder, 'Why, why, why?' Tiger
got to sleep, bird got to land; Man got to tell himself he understand. Cat's Cradle
48
Following the dictates of experience may possibly fool you, now and then. But not
following them invariably makes an ass out of you.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
47
There are men whose gait is far quicker than the mob's. They are bound to
lead—no matter how much the mob changes.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
46
So in the case of those who are skilled in attack, their opponents do not know
where to defend. In the case of those skilled in defense, their opponents do not
know where to attack. Sun Tzu
45 The reverse side also has a reverse side. Japanese proverb
44
My approach works not by making valid predictions, but by allowing me to correct
false ones. George Soros
43
It's not whether you're right or wrong that's important, but how much money you
make when you're right, and how much you lose when you're wrong. George Soros
42
The biggest secret about success is that there isn't any big secret about it, or if
there is, then it's a secret from me, too. The idea of searching for some secret for
trading success misses the point. Ed Seykota
41
It requires a great deal of boldness, and a great deal of caution, to make a great
fortune. Nathan Rothschild
40
Markets are no different than empires. They expand, rise in value, become over-
extended, and eventually collapse. Marc Faber
39 Every path chosen precludes an infinite number of alternative paths. Jack Sparrow
38 Drink up me hearties, yo ho... Jack Sparrow
37
When the speed of rushing water reaches the point where it can move boulders,
this is the force of momentum. When the speed of a hawk is such that it can strike
and kill, this is precision. So it is with skillful warriors — their force is swift, their
precision is close. Sun Tzu
36
The way to make money is to make it. The way to make big money is to be right at
exactly the right time. In this business a man has to think of both theory and
practice. A speculator must not be merely a student, he must be both a student
and a speculator.
Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
34
Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple, or
more direct than does nature… in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is
superfluous. Leonardo da Vinci
33
Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience, it is necessary
for us to do the opposite—that is, to commence with experience, and from this
proceed to investigate the reason. Leonardo da Vinci
32
I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and
grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose
heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their
principles unto death. Leonardo da Vinci
31
It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat
back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things. Leonardo da Vinci
30
Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation... even so does
inaction sap the vigor of the mind. Leonardo da Vinci
29
In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of
that which comes; so with present time. Leonardo da Vinci
28
Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of
what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The
trick is the doing something else. Tom Peters
27 If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't really understand it. Richard Feynman
26
I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more
interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong. Richard Feynman
24
Learn from science that you must doubt the experts. As a matter of fact, I can also
define science another way: Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts. Richard Feynman
23
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person
to fool. Richard Feynman
22
We have found it of paramount importance that, in order to progress, we must
recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt. Richard Feynman
21
You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're
finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird… So let's look at
the bird and see what it's doing—that's what counts. I learned very early the
difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something. Richard Feynman
20
Not only have experts gathered many 'elemental' facts about their field; they have
linked them to one another to produce a vast array of 'relational' facts... It is these
latent relationships that the mind processes in its search for insight. The
processing is autonomous and subliminal, but you can encourage it. Reflection
compounds knowledge. Lee Humphries
19 Funny old world innit? Jack Sparrow
18 Take what you can... give nothin' back. Jack Sparrow
17 History doesn't repeat, but sometimes it rhymes. Mark Twain
13 Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it. George Santayana
12
The world is perpetual caricature of itself; at every moment it is the mockery of
what it is pretending to be. George Santayana
11 Ninety percent of any great trader is going to be the risk control. Paul Tudor Jones
10 Nobody ever went bowlegged carrying away the money they won from me. Canada Bill Jones
9 A Smith and Wesson beats four aces. Canada Bill Jones
8 And that, my liege, is how we know the earth to be banana-shaped. Monty Python
7
Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to
your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away, because then the
work appears smaller... more of it can be taken in at a glance, and a lack of
harmony and proportion is more readily seen. Leonardo da Vinci
6 I am turned into a sort of machine for observing facts and grinding out conclusions. Charles Darwin
5 If all the economists were laid end to end, they would never reach a conclusion. George Bernard Shaw
3 The four most dangerous words in investing are This time its different. John Templeton
1 An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. Benjamin Franklin
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