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10 Great Quotes of Jesse Livermore

  
  Education
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“Do not anticipate and move without market confirmation—being a little late in your trade is your insurance that you are right or wrong.” -Jesse LivermoreJL-ASR

“The good speculators always wait and have patience, waiting for the market to confirm their judgment.” -Jesse Livermore

“{Limit} interest in too many stocks at one time.  It is much easier to watch a few than many.” -Jesse Livermore

“Experience has proved to me that the real money made in speculating has been: “IN COMMITMENTS IN A STOCK OR COMMODITY SHOWING A PROFIT RIGHT FROM THE START. ” -Jesse Livermore

“As long as a stock is acting right, and the market is right, do not be in a hurry to take a profit. You know you are right, because if you were not, you would have no profit at all. Let it ride and ride along with it. It may grow into a very large profit, and as long as the “action of the market does not give you any cause to worry,” have the courage of your convictions and stay with it.” -Jesse Livermore

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

“One should never sell a stock, because it seems high-priced.” -Jesse Livermore

“Profits always take care of themselves but losses never do. ” The speculator has to insure himself against considerable losses by taking the first small loss. In so doing, he keeps his account in order so that at some future time, when he has a constructive idea, he will be in a position to go into another deal, taking on the same amount of stock as he had when he was wrong.” -Jesse Livermore
“It is significant that a large part of a market movement occurs in the last forty-eight hours of a play, and that is the most important time to be in it.” -Jesse Livermore

“A speculator should make it a rule each time he closes out a successful deal to take one-half of his profits and lock this sum up in a safe deposit box. The only money that is ever taken out of Wall Street by speculators is the money they draw out of their accounts after closing a successful deal.” -Jesse Livermore

Optimism & Pessimism

  
  Education
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Optimism means expecting the best, but confidence means knowing how you will handle the worst. Never make a move if you are merely optimistic.

Optimism can be a speculator’s enemy. It feels good and is dangerous for that reason. It produces a clouding of judgment. It can lead you into a venture with no exits. Even when there is an exit, optimism can persuade you not to use it.
You should never make a move if you are merely optimistic. Before committing your money to a venture, ask how you will save yourself if things go wrong. Once you have that worked out, you’ve got something better than optimism. You’ve got confidence.

Trading Wisdom

  
  Education
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What I say to the youngling…
“Pray for the best, plan for the worst and go about our everyday business”

“It is one of the great paradoxes of the stock market that what seems too high usually goes higher and what seems too low usually goes lower.” – William O’Neil

“When asked if there was a technique for making money on the stock exchange, Nathan Rothschild said, “There certainly is. I never buy at the bottom and I always sell too soon.” – William O’Neil

“Only a fool holds out for the top dollars,” said Joe Kennedy, one-time wall street speculator and the father of former President John F. Kennedy. The object is to get out while a stock is up, before it has a chance to break. Gerald M. Loeb states, ” Once the price has risen into estimated normal or overvaluation areas, the amount held should be reduced steadily as quotation advance.” (At this point it’s all right to ask yourself, “Why didn’t I sell when it was going up and looked so strong?”)” — William O’Neil

“Another thing to bear in mind is this: Never try to sell at the top. It isn’t wise. Sell after a reaction if there is no rally.” – Jesse Livermore

Jesse Livermore's Trading Rules (circa 1940)

  
  Education
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1. Nothing new ever occurs in the business of speculating in stock and commodities.
2. Money cannot be consistently made trading every day or every week during the year.
3. Don’t trust your own opinion or back your judgment until the action of the market itself confirms your opinion.
4. Markets are never wrong – opinions often are.
5. The real money made in speculating has been in commitments showing a profit right from the start.
6. As long as a stock is acting right, and the market is right, do not be in a hurry to take profits.
7. One should never permit speculative ventures to run into investments.
8. The money lost by speculation alone is small compared with the gigantic sums lost by so-called investors who have let their investments ride.
9. Never buy a stock because it has a big decline from its previous high.
10. Never sell a stock because it seems high-priced.
11. I become a buyer as a stock makes a new high on its movement after having had a normal reaction.
12. Never average losses.
13. The human side of every person is the greatest enemy of the average speculator.
14. Wishful thinking must be banished.
15. Big movements take time to develop.
16. It is not good to be too curious about all the reason behind price movements.
17. It is much easier to watch a few than many.
18. If you cannot make money out of the leading active issues, you are not going to make money out of the market as a whole.
19. The leaders of today may not be the leaders of two years from now.
20. Do not become completely bearish or bullish on the whole market because one stock in some particular group has plainly reversed its course from the general trend.
21. Few people ever make money on tips. Beware of inside information. If there was easy money lying around, no one would be forcing it into your pocket.

Speculation Defined

  
  Education
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Graham and Dodd’s Definition of Speculation

In their 1934 classic text, Security Analysis, Benjamin Graham and David Dodd provided a general definition of speculation: “An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis, promises safety of principal and a satisfactory return. Operations not meeting these requirements are speculative.”

By this definition, most people who buy stocks are speculators. We can attempt to sharpen Graham and Dodd’s definition by including time-scale. Speculators are not interested in putting their money into a stock or commodity for a long time. They want to see a good profit quickly – on a time scale of minutes to months. If their money does not quickly perform well in a situation, they move it into another situation.

In pursuit of greater gain, speculators take greater risks with their capital than people who put their money into Savings & CD Accounts.

Jesse Livermore’s Definition of Speculation

Jesse Livermore, the 20th century’s most (in)famous speculator provided his own definition of speculation – preceding Graham and Dodd’s by several years. In Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, under his pseudonym of Lawrence Livingston, he said: “The speculator is not an investor. His object is not to secure a steady return on his money at a good rate of interest, but to profit by either a rise or a fall in the price of whatever he may be speculating in.” (more…)

The Timeless Wisdom Of Jesse Livermore

  
  Education
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Why is stock investing hard?

Take a step back to think, and you realize that stock trading is the intersection of many realms of knowledge. Business. The economy. Finance. Innovation and technology. Government policy. The market. And don’t forget psychology.

The more an investor knows about each of these fields, the more likely he or she will excel in the task of buying and selling stocks properly.

In the field of psychology alone, you have multiple topics to ponder. The psychology of the herd is important. So is the psychology of the self.

Jesse Livermore, whose life spanned the 19th and 20th centuries, didn’t get a master’s degree in macroeconomics or a Ph.D. in cognitive behavior. But his experience, hard work, failures and successes across many bull and bear cycles make him one of the most respected stock and futures traders of all time. (more…)

Wise quotes from Bernard M. Baruch

  
  Education
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263-1Wise quotes from Bernard M. Baruch:
Bernard Baruch was a stock market speculator who became a millionaire by age 30 in the early 1900’s and eventually a statesman and advisor to multiple Presidents during WWI and WWII.

  • -A speculator is a man who observes the future, and acts before it occurs.
  • -If a speculator is correct half of the time, he is hitting a good average. Even being right 3 or 4 times out of 10 should yield a person a fortune if he has the sense to cut his losses quickly on the ventures where he is wrong.
  • -During my eighty-seven years I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think.
  • -Age is only a number, a cipher for the records. A man can’t retire his experience. He must use it. Experience achieves more with less energy and time.
  • Do not blame anybody for your mistakes and failures.
  • Every man has a right to his opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.
  • I made my money by selling too soon.
    I never lost money by turning a profit.
  • Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking.
  • Never pay the slightest attention to what a company president ever says about his stock.
  • Whatever failures I have known, whatever errors I have committed, whatever follies I have witnessed in private and public life have been the consequence of action without thought.

Essential Qualities of the Speculator

  
  Education
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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…)

Market Wisdom from Bernard Baruch

  
  Education
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You don’t read a lot about Bernard Baruchanymore, but his teachings about the market are useful today as they always have been. There are several good books about him including his own“Baruch: My Own Story” which I recommend highly especially for those of you looking for a book to take with you on your summer vacations.

Although I’ve provided several quotes from Bernard Baruch through the years, here are some notes that I’ve taken from reading about him and his market wisdom. Enjoy!

    • Baruch started out as most traders do – i.e. losing lots of money because he lacked the knowledge, experience, & discipline. “You have to lose money in order to better yourself.”
      • Real success in the market takes time and money. Unfortunately “most people view the market as the place where the miracle of great and quick riches can be performed with little effort.”
        • Overtrading and holding too many positions in his early years caused Baruch to go broke many times before he developed the discipline to succeed.
          • A successful speculation is “a man who observes the future and acts before it occurs.” Acting swiftly in the market is important.
            • After losing money from the recommendation of others, Baruch focused himself on the facts. “One must search through a maze of complex and contradictory details to get to the significant facts…..Then he must be able to operate coldly, clearly, and skillfully on the basis of those facts.” The challenge for the successful speculator is “how to disentangle the cold hard facts from the rather warm feelings of the people dealing with the facts.” Moreover, “if you get all the facts, your judgment can be right; if you don’t get all the facts, it can’t be right.” (more…)

            Trading Wisdom by Larry Hite & Marty Schwartz

              
              Education
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            Larry Hite

            While the speculator doesn’t have the product knowledge or speed, he does have the advantage of not having to play. The speculator can choose to only bet when the odds are in his favor. That is an important positional advantage.

            In the above quote, Larry is referring to the fact that smaller retail traders have the advantage of being able to sit out an wait patiently for the best opportunities. Bigger institutional traders have to trade more and whilst they might have a speed advantage, the retail trader has to use his advantage of being able to trade like a sniper to its fullest.

            Frankly, I don’t see markets; I see risks, rewards, and money.

            The above quote stresses the importance of seeing each trade as a risk reward ratio, rather than just a potential profit opportunity. Pro traders calculate their risk first and then their reward, if the risk reward ratio of a trade doesn’t make sense then they don’t trade.

            Marty Schwartz

             I always laugh at people who say, “I’ve never met a rich technician.” I love that! It’s such an arrogant, nonsensical response. I used fundamentals for nine years and got rich as a technician. (more…)

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