ZF Capital

The game of speculation is the most uniformly fascinating game in the world. But it is not a game for the stupid, the mentally lazy, the person of inferior emotional balance, or the get-rich-quick adventurer. They will die poor.

– Jesse Livermore, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

Don’t take action with a trade until the market, itself, confirms your opinion. Being a little late in a trade is insurance that your opinion is correct. In other words, don’t be an impatient trader.

– Jesse Livermore, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

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

– Jesse Livermore, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

The man who is right always has two forces working in his favor – basic conditions and the men who are wrong.

– Jesse Livermore

There is a time for all things, but I didn’t know it. And that is precisely what beats so many men in Wall Street who are very far from being in the main sucker class. There is the plain fool, who does the wrong thing at all times everywhere, but there is the Wall Street fool, who thinks he must trade all the time. No man can always have adequate reasons for buying or selling stocks daily – or sufficient knowledge to make his play an intelligent play.

– Jesse Livermore, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

Tape reading was an important part of the game; so was beginning at the right time; so was sticking to your position. But my greatest discovery was that a man must study general conditions, to size them so as to be able to anticipate probabilities. In short, I had learned that I had to work for my money. I was no longer betting blindly or concerned with mastering the technique of the game, but with earning my successes by hard study and clear thinking. I also had found out that nobody was immune from the danger of making sucker plays.

– Jesse Livermore, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

It was never my thinking that made big money for me. It was my sitting. Men who can both be right and sit tight are uncommon. I found it one of the hardest things to learn. But it is only after this that a stock operator can make big money. it is literally true that millions come easier to a trader after he knows how to trade than hundreds did in the days of ignorance.

– Jesse Livermore, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator