Quotes

Trading is not only about investing. It’s a unique lifestyle.

Below are exceptional quotes expressed not only by masters of trading, but also artists, philosophers and politicians. These quotes give a different perspective to help us focus on relevant issues while we’re trying to embrace the volatility of market and life in general.

This I have learned as a trader with a half century of experience: I may think I know what a particular market is going to do, in fact, I may be almost certain of it. But in the final analysis I really do not have a clue.

The reason you fail to stick to your trading plan is because, as humans, we crave certainty.

…and for just a minute, when you make the impulsive trades, it assuages/mitigates/dilutes/calms the anxiety of the uncertainty.

The older you get the stronger the wind gets – and it’s always in your face.

If you know how to LEVERAGE the powers of future regret, you will ironically be more “disciplined”.

Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.

Never operate from a position of fear. If your stocks are keeping you up at night, sell to the sleeping point!

The market will do the most obvious in the most non-obvious way, making fools of the majority.

Amateurs look to the right of the equal sign
Pros look to the left.
Few.

Before you put any trade on, you must ask yourself – What is the reason and how is it going to be achieved? If you can make a note, even better.
A lot of traders can check themselves at this point, because they’ll notice, ‘it’s not a compelling reason’.

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; …. Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Learn how to take risks, and learn to fail gracefully.

The quicker you can move from difficult emotions like frustration and anger to acceptance, compassion, and gratitude, the better your life will be.

If you’re not failing, you’re not pushing your limits, and if you’re not pushing your limits, you’re not maximizing your potential.

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something.

Investing in stocks is an art, not a science, and people who’ve been trained to rigidly quantify everything have a big disadvantage.

Lack of success made me hungry. Achieving success made me lazy. Losing Success made me smarter. Getting my success back made me hungry to sustain it and never give it back again.

Winning mental battles takes a toll. Yes it can build confidence, give you inspiration and hope for the future, but it also can be draining. Don’t underestimate the need to recover after days where you make solid progress, or you’ll take unnecessary steps backward.

In the stock market, you show your greatness by the trades you fold not the losers you hold… by the losses you take compared to the profits you rake… and by the time you sit and wait while amateurs take the bait.

Trading gives you an incredibly intense feeling of what life is all about.

Before a dancer leaps into the air he goes into a crouch to set himself for the spring. I found it was the same with stocks.

If you don’t know who you are, the stock market is an expensive place to find out.

Perfect trading is not about trading perfectly, it’s about perfectly following a plan and perfect discipline.

The most important relationship a trader has is the one they have with them-self. When that relationship is healthy, robust, and full of self respect, then their relationship with markets, risk and uncertainty will be much stronger.
This shows up in their performance.

Don’t be a hero. Don’t have an ego. Always question yourself and your ability. Don’t ever feel that you are very good. The second you do, you are dead.

If you need to win money to gain confidence, you’re at risk of going after results in the wrong way. But even if you win money you won’t build confidence because you did it the wrong way, and you know it.

Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.

The objective is to make as much money as possible. It is not to be “fully invested”.

Win or lose, everybody gets what they want out of the market. Some people seem to like to lose, so they win by losing money.

If you have a losing position that is making you uncomfortable, the solution is very simple: Get out, because you can always get back in.

One of the most helpful things that anybody can learn is to give up trying to catch the last eighth or the first. These are the two most expensive eighths in the world.

Fit trading into your life, not the other way around.

The market will do what you want, but not when you expect it to.

There are only two positions: Too much and not enough.

The intelligent investor is a realist who sells to optimists and buys from pessimists.

Don’t offer too much risk to the market.

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure.

(…) The best [book] was How to Trade in Stocks, by Jesse Livermore. From this book I learned that your objective in the market was not to be right, but to make big money when you were right.