- Jesse Livermore is known for both colossal gains and losses. He made $million in 1929, and by 1934 he had lost all of it (an example that confirms the huge risk involved in stock trading).
- George Soros is one of history’s most successful stock and forex traders. He gained the nickname “the man who broke the bank of England” when he made $1 billion profit from selling $10 billion worth of pounds. He is the chairman of Soros Fund Management.
- Richard Dennis is a successful commodity trader based in Chicago. He made an estimated $200 million over a period of ten years from market speculating.
- Paul Tudor Jones became famous after the market crash of 1987 to make a whopping $100 million from shorting stocks. He is the founder of Tudor Investment Corporation.
- William Delbert Gann is known for developing technical indicators like Gann Angles and the Square of 9. He was a trader who used market forecasting techniques based on astrology, geometry, and mathematics.
- Bill Lipschutz turned $12000 investment in the stock market to $25000 in a few months but lost all of it. He then moved to forex trading, where he has made over $300 million.
- John R. Taylor Jr started as a political analyst for a chemical bank before becoming their forex analyst. He is the owner of FX Concepts, which is a currency managing firm.
- Stanley Druckenmiller is a successful trader who started as an oil analyst for the Pittsburgh National Bank. He was a part of a deal while working at George Soros that raked in $1 billion.
- Andrew Krieger is one of the best trader in the world. He sold kiwi, a New Zealand currency, a trade valued more than the total currency supply. He got revenue of $300 million from the trade.
- Michael Marcus is one of the best and most successful forex traders in the world. Legend Ed Seykota trained him. During the presidency of Ronald Reagan, Marcus held positions of almost $300 million in German marks.
Archives of “stock trader” tag
rssTony Oz Trading Wisdom – The Stock Trader
Tony Oz: ‘The Stock Trader – How I make a living trading stocks.” Page 163-164
[…] The thing that drives me crazy about traders is that they always tell you about a great pick they had, and how they have left so much money behind. It is always about how much money they leave behind. I used to participate in these conversations myself, and I would share my grief about the trades that got away from me. In fact, I would even do so unintentionally while teaching a seminar. Now, every time I am about to tell a story about a trade that got away from me, I take a deep breath, and I tell myself, “No one really cares!” As they say,”Misery loves company.” You might be in pain for letting a big winner go early, and you feel you have to tell the world about it. It is not going to get you anywhere. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. It is impossible to be right all the time. When you are right and you have not capitalized on being right, you are simply wrong.
One of my dear friends bought XYZ stock at 70. The stock went up to 85, and he sold it. He never told me he was in the stock prior to him selling it, and after the stock has already declined back to 75. He was so proud of himself, because he bought it at 70 and sold it at 85, especially after the stock dropped back to 75; consequently, he did everything right. He then said to me, “keep an eye on it and buy it if it trades higher than 85. I have a stop buy order on it at 85 1/2 myself.” I never really followed XYZ stock; however, every time I spoke with my friend he would say, “did you see XYZ stock today? It went up a couple of bucks. It is my pick of the year!” A few months go by, and XYZ stock took out the 85 level. It was now at 180. My buddy is glowing. “I told you, it is my pick of the year,” he says. XYZ goes up to 240 and announces a 3 for 1 stock split. “It is my pick of the year,” my buddy says. The stock ten folds, it was a great pick. My buddy was right.
No! He was wrong! Although he made a great call, he never bought XYZ back once it hit his buy target! It was his pick of the year, and he has zero dollars to show for it. Moral of the story, put your money where your mouth is. Do not use the “I should have done…” phrase. Only speak about your actions, learn from your profits and losses.
THE CAT STEVENS PHILOSOPHY
We tend to think that taking a loss on a trade is the end of the world when it is not. It is just a trade that did not work out. Period. No need to re-invent the wheel, throw out the baby with the bath water, or cry wolf one too many times. Maybe we should simply have the attitude of Cat.
… if I ever lost my hands
Lose my plough, lose my land
Oh, if I ever lose my hands- Oh, if…
I wont have to work no more
And if I ever lose my eyes
If my colors all run dry
And if I ever lose my eyes – Oh,
I won’t have to cry no more
And if I ever lose my legs
I won’t moan and I won’t beg
Oh if I ever lose my legs- Oh if…
I won’t have to walk no more
And if I ever lose my mouth
All my teeth, north and south
Yes, if I ever lose my mouth- Oh if…
I won’t have to talk…
Let’s add another stanza here for the stock trader…
… if I ever lose a trade
The Market takes the money I could have made
Oh, if I ever lose a trade…
I won’t have to brag no more!
Kind of puts things in their proper perspective doesn’t it?
Why Traders Keep Losing Money
“Imagine a mutual fund run by several money managers. Some of these managers are relatively astute and quite attentive to market data and patterns. Others tend to take their eye off the market ball and consistently lose money. The overall performance of the fund, averaging the returns of these managers, is mediocre, as the losses of the poorly performing managers cancel out the gains of the astute ones.
What would you do if you were the chief executive officer (CEO) of this fund?
Easy, you say. You would identify the successful managers and place all the money in their hands. You would either fire the unsuccessful ones or ensure that they couldn’t make final decisions about the investment of funds.
Now imagine that, within yourself, there are actually several different traders, each of whom takes control of your account for a period of time each day. One or two of these traders are relatively astute; others are downright destructive. Your overall performance suffers as a result. As Chief Executive Observer of your own account, what should you do?
…If you harbor multiple traders within you—some careful, some impulsive, some successful, some losing—your first task is to avoid labeling these traders and instead take an Observing stance. You need to figure out why these lousy traders within you are trading! They evidently are not trading simply for the monetary reward; if that were the case, they would never overrule the successful traders within you. The chances are good that they are trading to achieve something other than a good return on equity: a sense of excitement, a feeling of self-esteem, or an imposed self-image.
You do not fail at trading because you are masochistic or because you love failure or feel you deserve defeat. Rather, you sabotage your trading because you have different facets to your personality, each with its own needs, each clamoring for access to the trading account. Your trading suffers because you are not always trading with the equity stake firmly in mind. In a strange way, a losing trade can be a success to that part of you that is, for example, looking for excitement—not profits—from the markets.”
5 Steps To Becoming a Long-Term Success in Trading
1. Make Rational, Not Emotional, Decisions — Do you have a plan to enter and exit your trades? Or do you just wing it? If you have a plan, write down your rules, and make sure that you trade your plan. If you don’t, or can’t, follow your rules, hire someone who can.
2. Respect Risk — Stock Market is not going anywhere. If you risk too much, your emotions will take over, and you will likely go broke. Always know where you are going to exit before you enter and how much you are going to risk if wrong.,
3. Don’t Judge Your Success One Trade at a Time — Losing money is part of trading. It happens to everyone. Once you learn to expect that will happen, you can plan for it and get past normal pitfalls, such as giving up on your system after a few losing trades.
4. Think like a winner — Remember that winning starts within. How you think is everything.,
5. Ask For Help — Making money on Wall Street is simple, but it is definitely not easy. Don’t let your ego get in your way of making money. Most people have a hard time asking for help. That’s just one reason why most people lose money on Stock Market . You don’t have to go it alone. Find someone you trust and are comfortable with, and don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Must Read Quotes For Traders
“Good investing is a peculiar balance between the conviction to follow your ideas and the flexibility to recognize when you have made a mistake.“-Michael Steinhardt
Do not stay bullish or bearish. Go with the current flow of the market. Be on the team that is making the money.
“There is only one side of the market and it is not the bull side or the bear side, but the right side.” -Jesse Livermore
When putting it all together, it is more than just numbers. Successful traders trade in three dimensions.
“Successful trading depends on the 3M`s – Mind, Method and Money. Beginners focus on analysis, but professionals operate in a three dimensional space. They are aware of trading psychology their own feelings and the mass psychology of the markets. Each trader needs to have a method for choosing specific stocks, options or futures as well as firm rules for pulling the trigger – deciding when to buy and sell. Money refers to how you manage your trading capital.” – Alexander Elder
The money is in the primary market trend, not jumping in and out.
“I think it was a long step forward in my trading education when I realized at last that when old Mr. Partridge kept on telling other customers, “Well, you know this is a bull market!” he really meant to tell them that the big money was not in the individual fluctuations but in the main movements-that is, not in reading the tape but in sizing up the entire market and its trend.” – Jesse Livermore (more…)
7 reasons most traders fail in the markets
1. Most traders follow a flawed strategy with poor selection criteria, usually this is based on personal opinion or bad advice
2. Even when they find a good approach, the majority of traders don’t stay the course; they suffer what we call “style drift”, changing strategy when short-term results are unsatisfactory or become boring
3. The #1 mistake made by virtually all investors is they don’t cut losses
4. Most of the traders that blow themselves up usually do so by adding to losing positions
5. The grand majority of stock traders don’t know the truth about their trading – they fail to conduct in-depth post analysis regularly; they simply don’t know the math, so they have no idea how to manage risk in relation to reward
6. Many traders start with unrealistic goals; they want too much too fast and become disinterested when success doesn’t come quickly
7. Most failures in anything stem from a lack of belief in your own abilities; most people just don’t believe they can be exceptional at stock trading, but they can, if they really want it and follow the right plan
Probability in Trading
The indulgence of probability
Probability in day trading is an extremely flexible and equally subjective authority. It is one such aspect that provides for a comprehensive room in terms of making decisions and analysing the potential effects of the decision as well. It can be envisioned as a semi-mechanical process which is based on an automated system comprising of various probabilities that depict two possible results at the end of it all.
Application of the laws of probability to determine market curve
The laws of probability are majorly applied to the stock market arena in speculating the growth curve. One of the most common examples is the influence of present growth on a stock. For instance the laws of probability in stock market confers to the fact that a stock is expected to underperform following an adverse growth session since major players tend to reap in the benefits without further risk involvement.
The substantial loss is incurred since major proportions of the people seemingly think alike and want to either cash out with the profits they have made or simply by virtue of the fear of losing money. Either way the scenario is completely structured owing to the presumptuous thinking of the common people and the misguiding statistical analysis with probability at its core.
It is therefore easily understandable that probability plays a comprehensive role at the crux of shaping the stock market manoeuvres. Probability in day trading is completely speculative yet self-induced as well. In an easier and subtle language it can be envisioned as a pseudo element that helps to shape the movements. It is significantly a common entity that is extensively present at the back of the mind in each trader.
Probability based trading (more…)
Cruel to be Kind
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.
The James Bond Method To Stock Trading
So you want to be high flyer? Drive fast cars, attract the hot women, and travel the world? What sounds like the James Bond way of living, isn’t actually too far off that of a successfully wild stock trader?
While this approach might not be the most risk-adverse style of trading , we can all learn a thing or two from James Bond when it comes to making big bucks in the stock market.
Don’t worry about the consequences
While he may get himself into some crazy situations, James Bond never lets fear get in the way of getting the job done. Bond will walk straight into dark hallways and rooms filled of bad guys, confident that he has the upper hand.
Just like Bond, you too can block out potential consequences of stock trading. Don’t let the fear of losing money or a failed trade scare you away. Head into any situation, confident in your trading strategy.
Never get stressed out
For as great as Bond is, no other action hero gets caught into messy situations as much as Bond does. From the initial capture to just seconds before he finds his way out, Bond never loses his cool.
He stays calm under pressure and focuses on what to do next, rather than what might happen.
Just like Bond, you too can learn to keep cool under difficult situations. Understand that you don’t necessarily need to sell at the first sign of red or throw more money at the stock. Simply stay calm, asses the situation, and find your way out.