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Mark Douglas’s Five Fundamental Truths

1.       Anything can happen.  Translated – you have no control over the market.

2.       You don’t need to know what’s going to happen next in order to make money.  You don’t need to be psychic, or try to predict the market.  This is not to say that you cannot predict what the market will do next and be correct, only that you don’t have to, and that by trying to predict you shackle yourself to ‘the need to be right’ and the associated ball and chain.

3.       Wins and losses are random – You will never know when a trade will be a winner in advance, only that the conditions that define your edge are present.

4.       Your edge is nothing more than a higher probability of one thing happening over another.  Your edge is no guarantee of a winning trade, just of winning over time.

5.       Every moment in the market is unique.  Just because a similar trade won last time does not mean it will this time, and by treating each trade as totally unique you can see the truth of the trade without relating it to ‘what happened last time’.

These beauty in these theories is that they take the emphasis off any one trade, and turn your trading into a big picture endeavour.

6 Random Thoughts

1) Everyone needs a “mental break” from trading once in a while. The best time to take one is during corrective markets. It helps you protect capital and confidence.

2) If you have a -50% loss, it takes a +100% gain to get it back. In other words, CUT YOUR LOSSES!

3)  If you have trouble with discipline and staying away from the market, turn off your computer and get out of your chair. If you sit in the barbershop long enough, you’ll eventually get a haircut.

4) The “fear of missing out” is the downfall of most traders.

5) Whoever said that money doesn’t buy happiness clearly didn’t know where to shop.

6) “There is nothing new on Wall Street. What has happened in the past will happen again and again and again. This is because human nature does not change, and it is human emotion that always gets in the way of human intelligence. Of this I am sure.” — Jesse Livermore

Jesse Livermore / "How to trade stocks"

–“All through time, people have basically acted and reacted the same way in the market as a result of: greed, fear, ignorance, and hope. That is why the numerical (technical) formations and patterns recur on a constant basis.”

–“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.”

–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.

–“It is foolhardy to make a second trade, if your first trade shows you a loss. Never average losses. Let this thought be written indelibly upon your mind.”

–“Remember this: When you are doing nothing, those speculators who feel they must trade day in and day out, are laying the foundation for your next venture. You will reap benefits from their mistakes.”

–“When a margin call reaches you, close your account. Never meet a margin call. You are on the wrong side of a market. Why send good money after bad? Keep that good money for another day.”

–“Successful traders always follow the line of least resistance. Follow the trend. The trend is your friend.”

–A prudent speculator never argues with the tape. Markets are never wrong–opinions often are.

–Few people succeed in the market because they have no patience. They have a strong desire to get rich quickly.

–“I absolutely believe that price movement patterns are being repeated. They are recurring patterns that appear over and over, with slight variations. This is because markets are driven by humans–and human nature never changes.”

–When you make a trade, “you should have a clear target where to sell if the market moves against you. And you must obey your rules! Never sustain a loss of more than 10% of your capital. Losses are twice as expensive to make up. I always established a stop before making a trade.”

–“I am fully aware that of the millions of people who speculate in the markets, few people spend full time involved in the art of speculation. Yet, as far as I’m concerned it is a full-time job–perhaps even more than a job. Perhaps it is a vocation, where many are called but few are singled out for success.”

–“The big money is made by the sittin’ and the waitin’–not the thinking. Wait until all the factors are in your favor before making the trade.”

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