These tips all come from Market Wizards by Jack D. Schwager:
1. You've got to learn how to fall, before you learn to fly. -- Paul Simon
2. One man's ceiling is another man's floor. -- Paul Simon
3. If I wanted to become a tramp, I would seek information and advice from the most successful tramp I could find. If I wanted to become a failure, I would seek advice from men who had never succeeded. If I wanted to succeed in all things, I would look around me for those who are succeeding and do as they have done. -- Joseph Marshall Wade
4. Any common denominator among the traders I interviewed had more to do with attitude than approach. -- Jack D. Schwager
5. Trading provides one of the last great frontiers of opportunity in our economy. -- Jack D. Schwager
6. When I was starting out, I found biographies and interviews of successful traders particularly helpful. -- Unknown Trader
7. The traders themselves have not a glimmer of doubt that, over the long run, the question of who wins and who loses is determined by skill, not luck. -- Jack D. Schwager
8. Risk control was absolutely essential to successful trading. -- Jack D. Schwager
9. Ironically, the trade that I consider my turning point and one of my best trades ever was actually a loss. -- Jack D. Schwager
10. Although I usually found my own analysis more persuasive when we disagreed, Marcus ultimately proved right about the direction of the market. -- Jack D. Schwager
11. As soon as it knew that I was in, the market took that as a signal to start descending. -- Michael Marcus
12. I guess I had good instincts even then, because I immediately said to John, "We're not doing too well, let's get out!" -- Michael Marcus
13. I learned that if you shoot for what you want, you stand a better chance of getting it because you care much more. -- Michael Marcus
14. The trend is down, and I'm going to stay short until the trend changes. -- Ed Seykota
15. I wasn't patient enough to wait for a clearly defined situation. -- Michael Marcus
16. The markets were so fertile for trading then that I could make plenty of mistakes and still do well. -- Michael Marcus
17. 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. -- Michael Marcus
18. The secret is cutting down the number of trades you make. -- Michael Marcus
19. The best trades are the ones in which you have all three things going for you: fundamentals, technicals, and market tone. -- Michael Marcus
20. A bull market should shrug off bearish news and respond vigorously to bullish news. -- Michael Marcus
21. When a trade met all of my criteria, I would enter five to six times the position size I was doing on other trades. -- Michael Marcus
22. I knew that the big money was going to be made on the trades that met my criteria. -- Michael Marcus
23. Now you almost have to be contrary. You have to ask, "Isn't it true that all my fellow professional traders are already in, so who is left to buy?" -- Michael Marcus
24. Once you have defined a trend and taken a position, everyone else has taken a position as well. Since there is no one left to buy, the market swings around in the other direction and gets you out. -- Michael Marcus
25. The big players, including the governments, would always tip their hand. If we saw a surprise price move against us that we didn't understand, we often got out and looked for the reason later. -- Michael Marcus
26. I believe, as a courtesy, the European central banks are notified about major changes we are going to make, and they often act ahead of U.S. policy announcements. Consequently, the price move shows up in Europe first, even if it is because of something we initiate. -- Michael Marcus
27. One of my rules was to get out when the volatility and the momentum became absolutely insane. -- Michael Marcus
28. I think to be in the upper echelon of successful traders requires an innate skill, a gift. -- Michael Marcus
29. Always use stops. -- Michael Marcus
30. 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
31. If you become unsure about a position, and you don't know what to do, just get out. You can always come back in. -- Michael Marcus
32. Hold on to your winners and cut your losers. Both are equally important. -- Michael Marcus
33. You also have to follow your own light. -- Michael Marcus
34. Every trader has strengths and weaknesses. -- Michael Marcus
35. In the final analysis, you need to have the courage to hold the position and take the risk. -- Michael Marcus
36. You need to be very 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
37. How many days has the market been down or up in a row? What is the reading on the sentiment indexes? -- Michael Marcus
38. When the news is wonderful and a market can't go up, then you want to be sure to be short. -- Michael Marcus
39. The leading cause of financial disablement is the belief that you can rely on the experts to help you. -- Michael Marcus
40. Your average broker couldn't be a trader in a million years. More money is lost listening to brokers than any other way. -- Michael Marcus
41. Trading requires an intense personal involvement. You have to do your homework, and that is what I advise people to do. -- Michael Marcus
42. A good trader can't be rigid. -- Michael Marcus
43. If you can find someone who is really open to seeing anything, then you have found the raw ingredient of a good trader. -- Michael Marcus
44. Gut feel is very important in trading. --Michael Marcus
45. 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
46. Albert Einstein said that the single most important question is whether the universe is friendly. -- Michael Marcus
47. I think it is important for everybody to come to a point where they feel inside that the universe is friendly. -- Michael Marcus
48. If trading is your life, it is a torturous kind of excitement. -- Michael Marcus
49. In the end, losing begats losing. -- Michael Marcus
50. When you start losing, it touches off negative elements in your psychology; it leads to pessimism. -- Michael Marcus
51. I am very open-minded. -- Michael Marcus
52. I am willing to take in information that is difficult to accept emotionally, but which I recognize to be true. -- Michael Marcus
53. When a market moves counter to my expectations, I have always been able to say, "I had hoped to make a lot of money in this position, but it isn't working, so I'm getting out." -- Michael Marcus
54. If the trend in your equity is down, that is a sign to cut back and reevaluate. Or if you see that you are losing money a lot faster than you made it, that would be a warning. -- Michael Marcus
55. I really feel that if you can trade one market, you can trade them all. -- Michael Marcus
56. Trading is emotion. It is mass psychology, greed, and fear. It is all the same in every situation. -- Michael Marcus
57. For most great traders, early failure is more the rule than the exception. -- Jack D. Schwager
58. Early trading failure is a sign that you are doing something wrong; it is not necessarily a good predictor of ultimate potential failure or success. -- Jack D. Schwager
59. Taking advantage of potential major winning trades is not only important to the mental health of the trader, but is also critical to winning. --Jack D. Schwager
60. Letting winners ride is every bit important as cutting losses short. -- Jack D. Schwager
61. If you don't stay with winners, you are not going to be able to pay for the losers. -- Michael Marcus
62. It is important to commit to an exit point on every trade. -- Michael Marcus
63. Protective stops are very important because they force this commitment on the trader. -- Michael Marcus
64. Liquidate positions to achieve mental clarity when one is losing money and is confused regarding market decisions. -- Michael Marcus
65. It is necessary to follow your own mind as a trader. -- Michael Marcus
66. Be restrictive in selecting trades. -- Michael Marcus
67. Wait for those trades in which all the key elements line up in one direction. By doing so, you greatly enhance the probability of success on each trade. -- Michael Marcus
68. Making lots of trades when the conditions appear to be only marginally in favor of the trade idea has more to do with entertainment than trading success. -- Michael Marcus
69. I would wait until the market moved up to a certain level and then retraced by a specified amount before adding another unit. -- Bruce Kovner
70. At that moment, I realized that the markets were truly capable of taking money away every bit as fast as they gave it to you. That made a very strong impression on me. -- Bruce Kovner
71. 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
72. 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
73. If you apply yourself, great things can happen. -- Bruce Kovner
74. It is very easy to miss the point that you really can do it. -- Bruce Kovner
75. If you take a position and use discipline, you can actually make it. -- Bruce Kovner
76. You have to be wiling to make mistakes regularly; there is nothing wrong with it. -- Bruce Kovner
77. Michael Marcus 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
78. I have the ability to imagine configurations of the world different from today and really believe it can happen. -- Bruce Kovner
79. I can imagine that soybean prices can double or that the dollar can fall to 10 yen. -- Bruce Kovner
80. I stay rational and disciplined under pressure. -- Bruce Kovner
81. Trading skills can be taught only to a limited extent. -- Bruce Kovner
82. Distinguishing traits of trainees who made it as traders are that they are strong, independent, and contrary in the extreme. They are able to take positions others are unwilling to take. -- Bruce Kovner
83. A greedy trader always blows out. -- Bruce Kovner
84. I almost always trade on a market view; I don't trade simply on technical information. -- Bruce Kovner
85. 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
86. Technical analysis can often clarify the fundamental picture. -- Bruce Kovner
87. When the market moved, I was prepared to go with that movement because we had a conjuction of two important elements: a major change in fundamentals (although I wasn't smart enough to know in which direction it would impact the market), and a technical price breakout on the upside. -- Bruce Kovner
88. There are well-informed traders who know much more than I do. -- Bruce Kovner
89. I simply put things together. -- Bruce Kovner
90. The market usually leads because there are people who know more than you do. -- Bruce Kovner
91. There are thousands of difficult-to-understand mechanisms that lead the market, which come into play before the news reaches some poor trader sitting at his desk. But the one thing that does hit the market is a huge sale or purchase. -- Bruce Kovner
92. Technical analysis, I think, has a great deal that is right and a great deal that is mumbo jumbo. -- Bruce Kovner
93. Technical analysis tracks the past; it does not predict the future. - - Bruce Kovner
94. 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
95. You want to know everything you can about the market to give you an edge. -- Bruce Kovner
96. Technical analysis reflects the vote of the entire marketplace and, therefore, does pick up unusual behavior. -- Bruce Kovner
97. By definition, anything that creates a new chart pattern is something unusual. -- Bruce Kovner
98. 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. -- Bruce Kovner
99. Studying the charts is absolutely crucial and alerts me to existing disequilibria and potential changes. -- Bruce Kovner
100. Tight congestions in whch a breakout occurs for reasons that nobody understands are usually good risk/reward trades. -- Bruce Kovner
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2. None of the individuals associated with the Las Vegas TSP Investment Club are registered financial advisors.
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