Archives of “speculation” tag

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The Difference Between a Speculator and a Gambler

  
  Education
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What is the real difference between gambling and speculation (if you take drinking out of the equation)? Is it having a theory about the odds being better than even and avoiding ruin along the way?

One possible definition might be “a gambler chases fast fixed returns based on luck, while a speculator has time on his side to let the market decide how much his edge is worth.”

Perhaps the true Speculator — one who is on the front lines day after day — knows that to win big for his backers, he HAS to gamble. His only advantage is that he can choose when to play. 

A speculator strives to be professional, honorable, intellectual, serious, analytical, calm, selective and focused.

Whereas the gambler is corrupt, distracted, moody, impulsive, excitable, desperate and superstitious.

“gamblers are willing losers who occasionally win”

That is, gamblers risk their capital on propositions where the odds are either: (more…)

1929 Wisdom

  
  Education
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From John Hussman:

Galbraith reminds us that the 1929 market crash did not have observable catalysts. Rather, his description is very much in line with the view that the market crashed first, and the underlying economic strains emerged later: “the crash did not come – as some have suggested – because the market suddenly became aware that a serious depression was in the offing. A depression, serious or otherwise, could not be foreseen when the market fell. There is still the possibility that the downturn in the indexes frightened the speculators, led them to unload their stocks, and so punctured a bubble that had in any case to be punctured one day. This is more plausible. “Some people who were watching the indexes may have been persuaded by this intelligence to sell, and others may have been encouraged to follow. This is not very important, for it is in the nature of a speculative boom that almost anything can collapse it. Any serious shock to confidence can cause sales by those speculators who have always hoped to get out before the final collapse, but after all possible gains from rising prices have been reaped. Their pessimism will infect those simpler souls who had thought the market might go up forever but who now will change their minds and sell. Soon there will be margin calls, and still others will be forced to sell. So the bubble breaks.”

(more…)

Lessons from Behavioral Finance -Anirudh Sethi

  
Analysis, Education
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Behavioral finance out the possibility of a superior comprehension of money related market conduct and degree for financial specialists to settle on better venture choices in view of a comprehension of the potential traps. This guide concentrates on the last issue. Counselors can figure out how to comprehend their own inclinations and furthermore go about as a behavioral mentor to customers in helping them manage their own predispositions. In the course of recent years set up the fund, the hypothesis has accepted that speculators have little trouble settling on money related choices and are very much educated, cautious and predictable. The conventional hypothesis holds that financial specialists are not confounded by how data is exhibited to them and not influenced by their feelings. Be that as it may, plainly, reality does not coordinate these suppositions. The behavioral fund has been becoming in the course of the most recent twenty years particularly due to the perception that speculators infrequently carry on as per the presumptions made in the conventional back hypothesis. Over the most recent a long time since the finish of the worldwide monetary emergency, numerous speculators were deadened from making a move by a comparable feeling of dormancy. Stocks have to be sure dropped ordinarily. In any case, each time they did, they recouped to wind up higher than where they were. Today, numerous speculators are still left on the sidelines. That costs have gone up is unimportant. Valuations are substantially wealthier than they used to be, by recorded benchmarks. However, in the meantime, no one sets out to call a market top. We are still in a domain of rich liquidity. What financial specialists passed up a major opportunity for where the profits paid by consummately stable organizations they could have claimed. Money still yields near nothing in the bank.

Addressing Favorable Positions in Market

Markets are extensively effective, at any rate for the time being. Informal investors and individuals making here and now trades are practically ensured to lose money unless they have some type of enlightening favorable position. I know a couple – though not many – individuals who do appear to profit for the time being however they trade specific regions where foundations have little intrigue. For every other person, the primarily preferred standpoint of being a private speculator is that we can hold up. Shockingly, for many individuals, ensuring swings to be something they’re terrible at. What’s more, as Mischel discovered, this can be followed back to early adolescence. Regardless of whether this is a hereditary quality or is something learned at the bosom isn’t clear, yet it’s unquestionably the case that without you will battle to make positive returns. So in case you’re the sort of individual who can hardly wait to purchase the most recent must-have contraption, and would preferably charge to your Visa than hold up a month, presumably best you stick to list trackers. Pomposity has coordinate applications in speculation, which can be mind boggling and include estimates without bounds. Arrogant speculators may overestimate their capacity to distinguish winning ventures. The customary budgetary hypothesis proposes holding enhanced portfolios so hazard is not packed in a specific territory. ‘Confused conviction’ can weigh against this council, with financial specialists or their guides “beyond any doubt” of the great prospects of a given venture, making them trust that enhancement is along these lines superfluous. Pomposity is connected to the issue of control, with careless financial specialists, for instance, trusting they practice more control over their ventures than they do. In one investigation, princely financial specialists announced that their own stock-picking abilities were basic to portfolio execution. As a general rule, they were unduly hopeful about the execution of the offers they picked and disparaged the impact of the general market on their portfolio’s execution. In this basic way, speculators overestimate their own capacities and ignore more extensive variables impacting their ventures. (more…)

‘Essential Qualities of the Speculator’

  
  Education
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qualities

1. Self-Reliance. A man must think for himself,must follow his own convictions. George MacDonald says: “A man cannot have another man’s ideas any more than he can another man’s soul or another man’s body.” Self-trust is the foundation of successful effort.

2. Judgment. That equipoise, that nice adjustment of the faculties one to the other,which is called good judgment, is an essential to the speculator.
3. Courage. That is, confidence to act on the decisions of the mind. In speculation there is
value in Mirabeau’s dictum: “Be bold, still be bold; always be bold.” (more…)

Wall Street Its Mysteries Revealed Its Secrets Exposed By William C Moore 1921 – Greed

  
  Education
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Small excerpt is from the book: ‘Wall Street. Its Mysteries Revealed: Its Secrets Exposed’ published in New York, 1921 by William C. Moore. The book contains short and to the point chapters like: ‘The crowd mind’, ‘How the public speculates’, ‘Mental suggestion’ and ‘Market advice’ to name but a few. I chose the one on ‘Greed’ as I consider it great advice and timeless wisdom. Enjoy.

Greed p. 123-124

An avaricious or keen desire for profits is one of the most prevalent causes of failure in speculation. This weakness is general among traders. They desire “just a little more ” profit. If the stock or commodity bought advances, then that’s proof to them that it will advance further and so they hang on. They usually overstay and thus miss their market. If they fail to obtain the top price and it reacts, then they assure or console themselves by the expression: “Oh, it will come back.” It may “come back” but often it does not, and instead, declines to below the purchase price and frequently results in a loss. The same observations apply to a short sale for a further anticipated decline. It is a good policy to be satisfied with a reasonable profit and be willing to leave some for the other fellow. The market is always there and other opportunities for making profits will present themselves while the greedy trader is waiting to get the last eighth. (more…)

Cruel to be Kind

  
Analysis, Education
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Many people come up to me, the most recent being a superior Greek Trader, Mr. Lambis, telling me that their two favorite books are Reminiscences of a Stock Operator and Edspec. I tell them they are cruel by being kind. Here’s why.
“History Lessons for Investors: An annotated reissue of Edwin LeFevre’s
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator is reviewed by hedge-fund manager and
author Victor Niederhoffer.”

IMAGINE THAT MASTER NOVELIST and chess
aficionado Vladimir Nabokov wrote a fictional memoir about
Capablanca—the 1920s world champion who never made a mistake on the
board—and that Bobby Fisher then published an updated and annotated
version, incorporating all of the important developments of modern
chess strategy, along with a foreword by Anatoly Karpov.

A similar multilayered feast on investment is now available, with minor differences. Edwin Lefevre’s Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
is a novel told in the first person by a character inspired by
legendary trader Jesse Livermore. This classic is now graced with
extensive annotations by investment advisor Jon Markman and a foreword
by hedge-fund manager Paul Tudor Jones.

The result is big and beautiful, cutting across two centuries of
booms and busts and market and economic history, with a myriad of
vintage historical photos and instructive historical charts throughout.

One of Lefevre’s favorite adages is that there’s nothing new on Wall
Street. The similarity between the financial panic of 2008 and the 1907
panic recounted in the book is a prime example.

The numerous squeezes, manipulations,
insider trading, government hauling in of scapegoats and frauds settled
for pennies on the dollar that Lefevre and Markman recount are horses
that are found as well in the modern stable.

Trading Thoughts

  
  Education
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The speculator’s chief enemies are always boring from within. It is inseparable from human nature to hope and to fear. In speculation when the market goes against you, you hope that every day will be the last day — and you lose more than you should had you not listened to hope — to the same ally that is so potent a success-bringer to empire builders and pioneers, big and little. And when the market goes your way you become fearful that the next day will take away your profit, and you get out — to soon. Fear keeps you from making as much money as you ought to. The successful trader has to fight these two deep-seated instincts. He has to reverse what you might call his natural impulses. Instead of hoping he must fear; instead of fearing he must hope. He must fear that his loss may develop into a much bigger loss, and hope that his profit may become a big profit.

When you’re in a losing streak, your ability to properly assimilate and analyze information starts to become distorted because of the impairment of the confidence factor, which is a by-product of a losing streak. You have to work very hard to restore that confidence, and cutting back trading size helps achieve that goal.

When I get hurt in the market, I get the hell out. It doesn’t matter at all where the market is trading. I just get out, because I believe that once you’re hurt in the market, your decisions are going to be far less objective than they are when you’re doing well. If you stick around when the market is severely against you, sooner or later they are going to carry you out.

The key to trading success is emotional discipline. If intelligence were the key, there would be a lot more people making money trading… I know this will sound like a cliche, but the single most important reason that people lose money in the financial markets is that they don’t cut their losses short.”

The Psychology Of Speculation – The Disconcerting Effect Of Sudden Losses And Gains

  
  Education
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Time for another classic trading book excerpt.   It is about limiting losses and ultimately becoming a better trader if you are willing to embark on that never ending journey to better understand yourself. James L. Fraser from Fraser Publishing clearly understood that. The introduction he wrote clearly shows his deep understanding of human psychology, trading and speculation. Human behavior never changes. That’s why I am a huge fan of old classics. Buy those books. Read them. Apply the wisdom imparted.

Henry Howard Harper: ‘The Psychology of Speculation – The Human Element in Stock Market Transactions’

Introduction
First privately printed by the author in 1926 and only found in secondhand stores at rare intervals this classic deserves a more wide spread audience. Harper’s human behavior material gives us insights into the handicapping prejudices that ruin our stock market theories and sound resolutions. Especially in our computer oriented age does the average investor seem incapable of calm reasoning , with the result that he often does precisely the opposite of what he had intended doing.

Moreover, Harper’s easy writing style clearly shows you how the correct ideas of theory are turned into the wrong formulas of practice, and how tickeritis, though mentally intoxicating, leads on to poverty. In a contrary way, we seldom see the favorite caprice of the stock market which is to violate precedent, and do the thing least expected of it. You had better believe it for there are no certainties in this investment world, and where you have no certainties, you should begin by understanding yourself.

James L. Fraser
Wells,Vermont

The Disconcerting Effect of Sudden Losses and Gains, page 17 – 19

There are but few things more unbalancing to the mind than the act of suddenly winning or losing large sums of money. A few years ago at Monte Carlo I was in company with a friend, a well known man of affairs who while there played at roulette nearly every day, merely as pastime. He was of mature age, naturally methodical, conservative, temperate and cool-headed. He made it an unalterable rule to limit his losses to $200 at any one sitting, and on losing his amount he always stopped playing. His bets were usually limited to two dollars on the numbers, and never doubled except for one turn of the wheel when his number won. He generally played three numbers at a time; never more than four. For ten consecutive sittings luck was against him and each time he had lost his stake of $200. I saw him get up and leave the room, apparently in a state of disgust. An hour or so later I discovered him at a roulette table in another room stacking his chips in piles on a dozen or more numbers. Now and again when he exceeded the limit the watchful croupier reduced his bets and pushed a few disks back to him. In addition to betting on the numbers he was staking a thousand franc note on one of the three columns, another thousand on the colors, and a like amount on the center dozen. In one run he lost seventeen consecutive bets on red, of a thousand franc each. His eyes were bloodshot, his fingers twitched, and plainly he was under the strain of great agitation. He continued to play for three hours or so, when all of a sudden he got up, stood for a moment looking dazedly about, then left the table. He afterwards told me that he lost twenty thousand dollars; and that he hadn’t the slightest recollection of anything that happened during the play, nor did he realize the amount he was betting. In this connection, it is a fact not generally known, that many rich men sing printed cards of instructions to the proprietor of a certain well known gambling club in the South, directing him to stop their play and refuse them further credit beyond a certain specified sum on any one day or evening of play, and refusing to become responsible beyond that amount. If men who trade in the stock market were to impose like restrictions upon their transactions the losses would in many cases be greatly minimized.

Book Review : Jesse Livermore: Boy Plunger

  
  Education
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71bdRlXbWuLThis is a story of triumph and tragedy.  Jesse Livermore is notable as one of the few people who ever made it into the richest tiers of society by speculating — by trading stocks and commodities — betting on price movements.

This is three stories in one.  Story one is the clever trader with an intuitive knack who learned to adapt when conditions changed, until the day came when it got too hard.  Story two is the man who lacked financial risk control, and took big chances, a few of which worked out spectacularly, and a few of ruined him financially.  Story three is how too much success, if not properly handled, can ruin a man, with lust, greed and pride leading to his death.

The author spends most of his time on story one, next most on story two, then the least on story three.  The three stories flow naturally from the narrative that is largely chronological.  By the end of the book, you see Jesse Livermore — a guy who did amazing things, but ultimately failed in money and life.

Let me briefly summarize those three aspects of his life so that you can get a feel for what you will run into in the book:

The Clever Trader

Jesse Livermore came to the stock market in Boston at age 14, and was a very quick study.  He showed intuition on market affairs that impressed the most of the older men who came to trade at the brokerage where he worked.  It wasn’t too long before he wanted to invest for himself, but he didn’t have enough money to open a brokerage account, so he went to a bucket shop.  Bucket shops were gambling parlors where small players gambled on stock prices.  He showed a knack for the game and made a lot of money.  Like someone who beats the casinos in Vegas, the proprietors forced him to leave.

He then had more than enough money to meet his current needs, and set up a brokerage account.  But the stock market did not behave like a bucket shop, and so he lost money while he learned to adapt.  Eventually, he succeeded at speculating on both stocks and commodities, leading to his greatest successes in being short the stock market prior to the panic of 1907, and the crash in 1929.  During the 1920s, he started his own firm to try to institutionalize his gifts, and it worked for much of the era. (more…)

Dickson G. Watts ‘Speculation As A Fine Art’ – A Speculator’s Essential Qualities

  
  Education
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His list of ‘Essential Qualities of the Speculator’ and ‘Laws Absolute” show the timeless value of his insight:

1. Self-Reliance. A man must think for himself,must follow his own convictions. George MacDonald says: “A man cannot have another man’s ideas any more than he can another man’s soul or another man’s body.” Self-trust is the foundation of successful effort.

2. Judgment. That equipoise, that nice adjustment of the faculties one to the other,which is called good judgment, is an essential to the speculator.

3. Courage. That is, confidence to act on the  decisions of the mind. In speculation there is value in Mirabeau’s dictum: “Be bold, still be bold; always be bold.”

4. Prudence. The power of measuring the danger, together with a certain alertness and watchfulness, is very important. There should be a balance of these two, Prudence and Courage;Prudence in  contemplation, Courage in execution.
Lord Bacon says: “In meditation all dangers should be seen; in execution one, unless very formidable.”
Connected with these qualities,properly an outgrowth of them, is a third, viz:
promptness. The mind convinced, the act should follow. In the words of Macbeth; “Henceforth the
very firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand.” Think, act, promptly.

5. Pliability. The ability to change an opinion,the power of revision. “He who observes,”says Emerson, “and observes again, is always formidable.”

The qualifications named are necessary to the makeup of a speculator, but they must be in well-balanced
combination. A deficiency or an overplus of one quality will destroy the effectiveness of all. The possession of such faculties, in a proper adjustment is, of course, uncommon. In speculation, as in life, few succeed,many fail.

These are his ‘Laws Absolute’:

1. Never Overtrade. To take an interest larger than the capital justifies is to invite disaster. With such an
interest a fluctuation in the market unnerves the operator, and his judgment becomes worthless.

2. Never “Double Up”; that is, never completely and at once reverse a position. Being “long,” for instance,do not “sell out” and go as much “short.” This may occasionally succeed, but is very hazardous, for should the market begin again to advance, the mind reverts to its original opinion and the speculator “covers up”and “goes long” again. Should this last change be wrong, complete demoralization ensues. The change in the original position should have been made moderately,cautiously, thus keeping the judgment clear and preserving the balance of the mind.

3. “Run Quickly,” or not at all; that is to say, act promptly at the first approach of danger, but failing
to do this until others see the danger, hold on or close out part of the “interest.”

4. Another rule is, when doubtful, reduce the amount of the interest; for either the mind is not satisfied with the position taken, or the interest is too large for safety. One man told another that he could not sleep on account of his position in the market; his friend judiciously and laconically replied: “Sell down to a sleeping point.”

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