2010-12-18

Here are some famous quotes adapted to trading.

A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.
Albert Einstein

A trader should look at a chart for what it is, and not for what he want it
to be.

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
Albert Einstein

A trader who has never lost, is not a trader yet.

All men by nature desire knowledge.
Aristotle

All traders by nature desire profitable trades.

Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit.
Aristotle

Trade within your ability and risk tolerance. Increase size and frequency when ability and tolerance permits it.

Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.
Benjamin Franklin

Losing because of a new situation is fine, losing again is the beginning of the end.

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
Benjamin Franklin

The easiest thing to do is prepare. If you don’t, on behalf of the other market participants, we thank you.

Creditors have better memories than debtors.
Benjamin Franklin

You will always remember the trades that could have been and forget about the risks that were involved.

Applause is a receipt, not a bill.
Dale Carnegie

Your trading statement is the receipt, not your spreadsheet.

First ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen? Then prepare to accept it. Then proceed to improve on the worst.
Dale Carnegie

The more you mentally prepare and except loss the less chance it occurs.

A pair of powerful spectacles has sometimes sufficed to cure a person in love.
Friedrich Nietzsche

A trade is a not the girl you want to take home to mother, act accordingly.

After coming into contact with a religious man I always feel I must wash my hands.
Friedrich Nietzsche

After talking to a guru or anyone with the holy grail, I always take a hot shower, burn the clothes I was wearing, and drink them out of my mind.

Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Focusing on the result (making money), makes winning more fun but less frequent.

Always do whatever’s next.
George Carlin

Move on, understand what happened in the past but do not have an emotional attachment to it.

Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.
George Carlin

Fighting yourself is like robbing your own bank.

A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.
George S. Patton

A trading plan is just words until you act on it.

Always do everything you ask of those you command.
George S. Patton

Educators talk in best practices, if you teach it, do it.

I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.
George S. Patton

The easiest thing to handle is winning, but trading doesn’t start until you lose.

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.
George S. Patton

If every trader is the long there is no money in being long unless you were first.

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.
George Washington

Don’t marry a trade but if you must make sure you have a prenup.

Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession.
George Washington

Your habits are easily formed but be aware they are hard to pay for.

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.
Henry David Thoreau

Just because the market is open does not mean you have to trade. Cash is a position too.

All men are children, and of one family. The same tale sends them all to bed, and wakes them in the morning.
Henry David Thoreau

Your worth as a trader is today’s trading statement, it is re-calculated daily.

All this worldly wisdom was once the unamiable heresy of some wise man.
Henry David Thoreau

The trading genius was previously an idiot or is closer to being one tomorrow.

A bore is a person who opens his mouth and puts his feats in it.
Henry Ford

All trading results are insignificant unless it is your last.

Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.
Henry Ford

Having trading discipline is the beginning; keeping discipline is the progress; staying discipline is the success.

Be candid with everyone.
Jack Welch

Be honest with yourself, if or when you fail the change of direction will not kill you.

Change before you have to.
Jack Welch

The market will force you to change if you don’t and it is painful and disheartening.

Control your own destiny or someone else will.
Jack Welch

Put yourself in the best position or you will not have a position come tomorrow.

Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be.
Jack Welch

Bend your view to the charts, not the charts to your view.

Even Castles made of sand, fall into the sea, eventually.
Jimi Hendrix

If the base of your trading was built on weak grounds, it is not a matter of if you fail but when you fail.

I try to use my music to move these people to act.
Jimi Hendrix

I place my entries and exits where I am assured people will have to act.

I used to live in a room full of mirrors; all I could see was me.
Jimi Hendrix

You are not the market, but some days you are a part of it.

Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.
John Adams

Trading can be simple if you let it. The stakeholders want to convince you otherwise, making their accomplishment and pocketbooks larger.

In politics the middle way is none at all.
John Adams

Indecision will lead to failure even if it does not result in losing money.

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
John F. Kennedy

Any trader can take risk a smart trader can use it to their advantage.

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
John F. Kennedy

Move past your losing trades don’t erase them.

I don’t think the intelligence reports are all that hot. Some days I get more out of the New York Times.
John F. Kennedy

Understand from whom and why you are getting “hot” tips.

Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.
John Wooden

Losing is lonely, but it can be the easiest way to get to know yourself.

Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.
John Wooden

If you make money by making a mistake, it is loan with a very high interest rate.

Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.
John Wooden

Losing only matters if you lost because of a lesson you were already taught.

If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?
John Wooden

Develop a plan before you trade or do it later with less cash and more frustration.

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.
Karl Marx

A result is rarely an aberration, never treat it as one.

Be content to seem what you really are.
Marcus Aurelius

Find yourself and trade that way.

Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.
Marcus Aurelius

Because trading seems difficult today, it was not for someone else. Stick with it the roles may reverse tomorrow.

Confine yourself to the present.
Marcus Aurelius

A trade is not connected to another, unless you let.

A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.
Mark Twain

Not accepting a failure is to not learn from it.

A man’s character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.
Mark Twain

If you lose you are not necessarily a loser, if you call yourself a loser no one will be able to change your mind.

Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.
Mark Twain

Don’t risk more than you cannot look at positively later.

A lie cannot live.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Eventually you will run out of money if you run from your losses.

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

You may not understand it fully right now but the market is always right.

He who hesitates is poor.
Mel Brooks

If you are thinking about getting out, your competition is already flat.

Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation.
Michael Jordan

A loss is only a loss if you lose the lesson.

I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.
Michael Jordan

The view of trading changes after a loss it is your job to get it back to where it was.

The game is my wife. It demands loyalty and responsibility, and it gives me back fulfillment and peace.
Michael Jordan

If you do not respect the market it will not respect you.

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.
Mother Teresa

If you understand and accept risk, you will never risk too much again.

If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.
Mother Teresa

It does not matter how successful you were today, it just matters that you were successful.

I realize that some of my anecdotes may appear conflicting but they are not to me. It is not up to me to convince you of their truths. It is your job to figure out how they apply to you.