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12 Market Wisdoms from Gerald Loeb

  
  Education
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It is funny how the best traders of all times basically repeat the same things with different words. 

Gerald Loeb is the author of ‘The Battle for Investment Survival’ and is one of the most quotable men on Wall Street.  Here are 12 of the smartest things he has ever said about the stock market:

1. The single most important factor in shaping security markets is public psychology.

2. To make money in the stock market you either have to be ahead of the crowd or very sure they are going in the same direction for some time to come.

3. Accepting losses is the most important single investment device to insure safety of capital.

4. The difference between the investor who year in and year out procures for himself a final net profit, and the one who is usually in the red, is not entirely a question of superior selection of stocks or superior timing. Rather, it is also a case of knowing how to capitalize successes and curtail failures.

5. One useful fact to remember is that the most important indications are made in the early stages of a broad market move. Nine times out of ten the leaders of an advance are the stocks that make new highs ahead of the averages.

6. There is a saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” One might paraphrase this by saying a profit is worth more than endless alibis or explanations. . . prices and trends are really the best and simplest “indicators” you can find. (more…)

The agony of waiting

  
Economy, Education
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Alex Stone in the New York Times recently had an interesting article up on the psychology of waiting in line. He notes how Americans spend 37 billion hours a year waiting in line and how it exacts a psychological toll on all of us. Traders are in a very real sense waiting in line for trades that meet their criteria for valid setups. It should not be surprising then that traders have a tendency to jump the gun looking for things to do to relieve the stress of waiting for viable trades. Stone writes why it is we as consumers are vulnerable to distractions from our waits:

The drudgery of unoccupied time also accounts in large measure for the popularity of impulse-buy items, which earn supermarkets about $5.5 billion annually. The tabloids and packs of gum offer relief from the agony of waiting.
Our expectations further affect how we feel about lines. Uncertainty magnifies the stress of waiting, while feedback in the form of expected wait times and explanations for delays improves the tenor of the experience.

Unfortunately traders don’t know what the “expected wait times” will be for their next trade. The ongoing challenge for traders is to avoid impulsive actions that don’t fit with established trading checklists. Brett Steenbarger in a vintage post from TraderFeed walks through an example of how he was jumping ahead of certain trades and paying the price for them. He was able to turn things around but he notes how even experienced traders are still a work in progress.

It is a bit of cliche to say that traders need have patience and discipline. A better understanding of the psychology of waiting can help keep traders a bit more grounded while they wait for better opportunities down the road. As for your wait at the DMV that is a whole other issue entirely.

12 Market Wisdoms from Gerald Loeb

  
  Education
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1. The most important single factor in shaping security markets is public psychology.

2. To make money in the stock market you either have to be ahead of the crowd or very sure they are going in the same direction for some time to come.

3. Accepting losses is the most important single investment device to insure safety of capital.

4. The difference between the investor who year in and year out procures for himself a final net profit, and the one who is usually in the red, is not entirely a question of superior selection of stocks or superior timing. Rather, it is also a case of knowing how to capitalize successes and curtail failures.

5. One useful fact to remember is that the most important indications are made in the early stages of a broad market move. Nine times out of ten the leaders of an advance are the stocks that make new highs ahead of the averages.

6. There is a saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” One might paraphrase this by saying a profit is worth more than endless alibis or explanations. . . prices and trends are really the best and simplest “indicators” you can find. (more…)

Gerald Loeb’s Market Wisdom

  
  Education
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READ THIS NOW1. The most important single factor in shaping security markets is public psychology.

2. To make money in the stock market you either have to be ahead of the crowd or very sure they are going in the same direction for some time to come.

3. Accepting losses is the most important single investment device to insure safety of capital.

4. The difference between the investor who year in and year out procures for himself a final net profit, and the one who is usually in the red, is not entirely a question of superior selection of stocks or superior timing. Rather, it is also a case of knowing how to capitalize successes and curtail failures.

5. One useful fact to remember is that the most important indications are made in the early stages of a broad market move. Nine times out of ten the leaders of an advance are the stocks that make new highs ahead of the averages. (more…)

Market Beating lessons

  
  Education
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BULL-FIGHTOn the school of hard knocks:

The game taught me the game. And it didn’t spare me rod while teaching. It took me five years to learn to play the game intelligently enough to make big money when I was right.

On losing trades:

Losing money is the least of my troubles. A loss never troubles me after I take it. I forget it overnight. But being wrong – not taking the loss – that is what does the damage to the pocket book and to the soul.

On trading the trends:

Disregarding the big swing and trying to jump in and out was fatal to me. Nobody can catch all the fluctuations. In a bull market the game is to buy and hold until you believe the bull market is near its end.

On sticking to his plan:

What beat me was not having brains enough to stick to my own game – that is, to play the market only when I was satisfied that precedents favoured my play. There is the plain fool, who does the wrong thing at all times everywhere, but there is also the Wall Street fool, who thinks he must trade all the time. No man can have adequate reasons for buying or selling stocks daily – or sufficient knowledge to make his play an intelligent play. (more…)

Sticking to the Plan

  
  Education
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A Trading Plan only has value if it is utilized as intended. It does you no good to have one if you do not stick to it. We all know this, yet traders find reasons to deviate from their Plan, almost always with negative consequences. Why? There are several reasons.

  • The Plan does not match the trader: A Trading Plan is a personal thing intended for a specific trader, based on her/his personality and circumstances. If it is not created honestly based on reality rather than hope, then it will not match the trader, and likely it will be neglected.
  • Lack of Patience: Trading Plans are intended to be long-term, at least relatively so. Many traders give up on their Plan, or often more specifically the trading system in the Plan, after a period of sub-par performance rather than sticking it out through the inevitable rough times.
  • Lack of Discipline: Trading according to a plan requires continuous performance of a set of actions in a proscribed manner. Doing so takes discipline. Traders lacking discipline do not stick to Trading Plans. (The word “discipline” is probably the most frequently used in regards to trading success.)
  • Self-Destructive Behavior: Sometimes traders have deeply ingrained issues of a psychological nature which tend to sabotage them. It is something which can be overcome with work, but first it must be recognized and addressed.

These are not the only reasons traders fail to stick to Trading Plans, but they do represent a large portion of the explanations for it happening. The point is that a Trading Plan is little more than a document if not put in to practice.

I hope this sequence has been helpful to you. Definitely feel free to drop me a question or leave a comment with your thought, experience, or ideas on the subject.

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