I trade for the thrill of victory. This the greatest job in the world. Where else can you be alone in your home, watching your monitors, not having to fight traffic, and not having a boss! I’m constantly intrigued all day long and never bored. I can’t wait for the day to start and I’m very sad to see the day end. I just love this work so much!
– Dan Zanger
Given ample opportunity to rise during a bull market, the failure of a particular issue to move upward in gear with the averages can be warning enough in itself that something is wrong. Laggards are losers.
Speculative flings in search of “something that hasn’t moved yet” can sometimes sweep up a laggard issue or two, but by and large, the hope is that what did not happen yesterday and today will happen tomorrow– only because the market seems so marvelous– and as the bull surges on without that stock, the reality becomes progressively more urgent: a stock does not have to go down first to show that it is becoming weak. Merely not going up is, under most bullish circumstances, a sign of trouble brewing.
– Justin Mamis, When to Sell
The length of time it takes you to master trading is totally dependent upon how long it takes to master yourself. People who excel in any activity are excellent because they have become their new beliefs and distinctions. They are not trying to be confident; they are confident. They are not trying to trade free of fear; they have no fear. The act of trying means that you are still not there.
– John Hayden, The 21 Irrefutable Truths of Trading
Emotions get in the way of making good investment decisions. For example, your desire to feel good about yourself – seeking pride – causes you to sell your winners too soon. Trying to avoid regret causes you to hold your losers too long. The consequences are that you sell the stocks that perform well and keep the stocks that perform poorly. This hurts your return and causes you to pay higher taxes.
– John Nofsinger, Investment Madness
A successful trader does not forecast the future – he monitors the market and manages his trading position.
– Alexander Elder, Trading For a Living
In the early stages of your trading career, don’t worry too much about whether you should buy or sell, but rather about how you’ve executed whatever trade you’ve made. You’ll learn more from your trades that way.
– Peter Steidlmayer, Steidlmayer on Markets
The markets don’t owe you anything (regardless of how hard you work to be successful) because every other trader participating is doing so to take your money away. You and you alone are completely responsible for whatever you end up with. The sooner you accept that responsibility (if you haven’t already), the easier it will be to identify what skills you need to learn to interact with the markets more successfully. Even if you can’t identify the mental components responsible for what you ended up with, at least by assuming that you are responsible, you will be opening yourself up to find out.
– Mark Douglas, The Disciplined Trader
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