A thorough understanding of yourself is essential in trading. How you think, what you believe, and how you act out your life are critical parts of winning in trading and winning in life. Very few people understand, or are aware of, this subtlety in the trading profession. In other careers, you can get by; but in trading, you are quickly eliminated. The sad part is, most people have no idea why they have failed.
– Victor Sperandeo, Principles of Professional Speculation
It never entered my mind to sit back and say, “I can’t do it.” I had such a tremendous appetite to excel and to grasp all that there was to know to be the best there is. This attitude is such a motivational force in my life no matter what I do. My learning involved great sacrifice. I spent lots of evenings home alone. For me to go hang out at the pub with the gang just didn’t cut it. I would rather be at home with my charts, which brought me great satisfaction. It is something that I still love to do.
– Dan Zanger
The journal is very basic and includes what trades I made during the day and my reasons for getting into the trade. My journal has changed a little bit over time since my reasons for entering a trade now are pretty consistent. There are two reasons for having a journal, in my opinion. One reason is to have a manual backup in case there’s a system or software failure. I had to take advantage of this a couple of times, in one instance where the software recorded the trade twice and put me short a stock by mistake.
The second reason that I have kept a journal is for learning and improving as a trader. I go back and review, trade by trade, what I was thinking and doing out of the ordinary in a given week that caused my results to be better or worse than average. And really, I don’t need a lot of detail in the journal. For me, just having the trade and the time and any other comments, such as whether it was an active or quiet market, to help me re-live the day.
– Albert Mazzone
The market has nothing to do with you. The market is a beast that doesn’t care who you are. So the trick is not to take anything personally.
– Shay Horowitz
One of the best rules anybody can learn about investing is to do nothing, absolutely nothing unless there is something to do. Most people – not that I’m better than most people – always have to be playing; they always have to be doing something. 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.
– James Rogers, Market Wizards by Jack Schwager
You can’t control performance over a short period of time, but hard work and experience matters. You must, however, love what you’re doing and have conviction in your methodology.
– Spiros Segalas, Wizards of Wall Street by Kirk Kazanjian
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