Inspirational Trading Quotes
Taken from Joe Ross – Trading is a Business:
“Some of the greatest trading stars have been people who have had a bulldog approach to trading. They have withstood the enormous financial strain and pressure of being net losers in the markets until they mastered their chosen profession. Along with staggering financial losses, they have stood up to the immense mental and emotional strain of losing, often over long periods of time. It would seem that for most, the only way to the top in trading is to persevere.”
“Life is nothing more than a series of bets and bets are really nothing more than questions and their answers. There is no real difference between, “Should I take another hit on this Blackjack hand?” and “Should I get out of the way of that speeding and wildly careening bus?” Each shares two universal truths: a set of probabilities of potential outcomes and the singular outcome that takes place.
Every day we place hundreds if not thousands of bets – large and small, some seemingly well considered and others made without a second thought. The vast majority of the latter, life’s little gambles made without any thought, might certainly be trivial. “Should I tie my shoes?” Seems to offer no big risk, nor any big reward. While others, such as the aforementioned – speeding and wildly careening bus – would seem to have greater impact on our lives. However, if deciding not to tie your shoes that morning causes you to trip and fall down in the middle of the road when you finally decide to fold your hand and give that careening bus plenty of leeway, well then, in hindsight the trivial has suddenly become paramount.”
“Trading successfully follows the Hindu concept of Karma Yoga, which is the yoga of work. In it, you focus on perfecting the actions rather than the results (profit/loss) of those actions. Traders get into tremendous trouble when they focus too closely on their P&L. You have to manage the trade and let it lead you wherever it‚ is going.” Alan Farley
“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
“It is my view that trading can neither be an art nor a science, perhaps at best a hobby, until the trader is willing to take on being the cause of his/her fortune.” Smallworld
“There is a time to go long, a time to go short and a time to go fishing.” Jesse Livermore
“The Trend is your friend.” Unknown
“Plan the trade and trade the plan.” Unknown
“The next 1000 trades.” Unknown
“Don’t focus on making money; focus on protecting what you have.” Paul Tudor Jones
“The most important thing in making money is not letting your losses get out of hand.” Marty Schwartz
“I always define my risk, and I don’t have to worry about it.” Tony Saliba
“The key to trading success is emotional discipline. If intelligence were the key, there would be a lot more people making money trading… the single most important reason that people lose money in the financial markets is that they don’t cut their losses short.” Victor Sperandeo
“I think investment psychology is by far the more important element, followed by risk control, with the least important consideration being the question of where you buy and sell.” Tom Basso
“If I have positions going against me, I get right out; if they are going for me, I keep them… Risk control is the most important thing in trading. 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.” Paul Tudor Jones
“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
“When I get hurt in the market, I get the hell out. It doesn’t matter at all where the market is trading. I just get out, because I believe that once you’re hurt in the market, your decisions are going to be far less objective than they are when you’re doing well… If you stick around when the market is severely against you, sooner or later they are going to carry you out.” Randy McKay
“I’ll keep reducing my trading size as long as I’m losing… My money management techniques are extremely conservative. I never risk anything approaching the total amount of money in my account, let alone my total funds.” Randy McKay
“The fundamental law of investing is the uncertainty of the future.” Peter Bernstein
“There is the plain fool who does the wrong thing at all times anywhere, but there is the Wall Street fool who thinks he must trade all the time.” Jesse Livermore
“One common adage…that is completely wrongheaded is: You can’t go broke taking profits. That’s precisely how many traders do go broke. While amateurs go broke by taking large losses, professionals go broke by taking small profits.” William Eckhardt
“I trade according to the philosophy that wealth accumulation involves systematic and disciplined compounding of trading capital over time” – Gary Smith – How I trade for a living.
“The heart lies and the head plays tricks with us, but the eyes see true. Look with your eyes. Hear with your ears. Taste with your mouth. Smell with your nose. Feel with your skin. Then comes the thinking, afterward, and in that way knowing the truth.” – Syrio Forel
“…don’t hope. The market doesn’t give a shit about your hope. Don’t expect your hope to make anything happen. Don’t look at what you hope the market will do. Look at what it’s actually doing.” George RR Martin
“You can’t move the market. You can only move yourself.” Unknown
“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.” Ed Seykota
“The markets are the same now as they were five or ten years ago because they keep changing – just like they did then.” Ed Seykota
“Improbable things happen. You have to put yourself in a position to take advantage of them.” Andreas Clenow
“I get real, real concerned when I see trading strategies with too many rules (you should too).” Larry Connors
“Never, ever argue with your trading system” Michael Covel
“I don’t know where the opportunities will present themselves in 2015 [or any other time], and frankly, neither does anyone else.” Martin Lueck
“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” Vince Lombardi
“Robust systems tend to be designed around successful trading tactics, classical money management techniques, and universal principles of market behavior. These systems are not designed around specific types of markets or market action. And here is the amazing thing about robust systems: The more robust a system, the more volatile it tends to be! This is because robust systems are not optimized to particular markets or market conditions. The converse is also true. You can design systems with excellent returns and low volatility on historical testing, but which work only for given periods in given markets. These systems tend to be curve-fit or market-fit and are not robust. For a system to have the highest odds of profitability over time and markets, the inescapable trade off is volatility”. David Druz
“If you want to be in the top 5% of money managers, you have to be willing to be in the bottom 5%, too.” Unknown
10, 3, 2, 1 bedtime. “10 hours before bed stop drinking caffeine, stop drinking alcohol 3 hours before bed, 2 hours before bed stop eating and 1 hour before bed switch off all electronic devices. Craig Ballantyne from The Perfect Day Formula
“What do you want your life to look like in 5 years time? Take some time to think about it and write the answers down. Now, what do you have to do to get there? Ask yourself each day “What do I want to achieve? What will I do today to reach that goal?” Craig Ballantyne
“Being free of debt frees your mind and reduces stress.” Unknown
“Drop your ego and accept advice”. Unknown
Spend 5 minutes in the early morning writing down your biggest problem and then spend the rest of the time writing down how you can solve the problem. Do this each morning and you will gradually find ways to fix your problems. Craig Ballantyne
