1. Plan
your trades. Trade your plan.
2. Keep
records of your trading results.
3. Keep a
positive attitude, no matter how much you lose.
4. Don’t
take the market home.
5.
Continually set higher trading goals.
6.
Successful traders buy into bad news and sell into good news.
7.
Successful traders are not afraid to buy high and sell low.
8.
Successful traders have a well-scheduled planned time for studying the markets.
9.
Successful traders isolate themselves from the opinions of others.
10.
Continually strive for patience, perseverance, determination, and rational
action.
11. Limit
your losses – use stops!
12. Never
cancel a stop loss order after you have placed it!
13. Place
the stop at the time you make your trade.
14. Never
get into the market because you are anxious because of waiting.
15. Avoid
getting in or out of the market too often.
16. Losses
make the trader studious – not profits. Take advantage of every loss to improve
your knowledge of market action.
17. The
most difficult task in speculation is not prediction but self-control. Successful
trading is difficult and frustrating. You are the most important element in the
equation for success.
18. Always
discipline yourself by following a pre-determined set of rules.
19.
Remember that a bear market will give back in one month what a bull market has
taken three months to build.
20. Don’t
ever allow a big winning trade to turn into a loser. Stop yourself out if the
market moves against you 20% from your peak profit point.
21. You
must have a program, you must know your program, and you must follow your
program.
22. Expect
and accept losses gracefully. Those who brood over losses always miss the next
opportunity, which more than likely will be profitable.
23. Split
your profits right down the middle and never risk more than 50% of them again
in the market.
24. The key
to successful trading is knowing yourself and your stress point.
25. The
difference between winners and losers isn’t so much native ability as it is
discipline exercised in avoiding mistakes.
26. In
trading as in fencing there are the quick and the dead.
27. Speech
may be silver but silence is golden. Traders with the golden touch do not talk
about their success.
28. Dream
big dreams and think tall. Very few people set goals too high. A man becomes
what he thinks about all day long.
29. Accept
failure as a step towards victory.
30. Have
you taken a loss? Forget it quickly. Have you taken a profit? Forget it even
quicker! Don’t let ego and greed inhibit clear thinking and hard work.
31. One
cannot do anything about yesterday. When one door closes, another door opens. The
greater opportunity always lies through the open door.
32. The
deepest secret for the trader is to subordinate his will to the will of the
market. The market is truth as it reflects all forces that bear upon it. As
long as he recognizes this he is safe. When he ignores this, he is lost and
doomed.
33. It’s
much easier to put on a trade than to take it off.
34. If a
market doesn’t do what you think it should do, get out.
35. Beware
of large positions that can control your emotions. Don’t be overly aggressive
with the market. Treat it gently by allowing your equity to grow steadily
rather than in bursts.
36. Never
add to a losing position.
37. Beware
of trying to pick tops or bottoms.
38. You
must believe in yourself and your judgement if you expect to make a living at
this game.
39. In a
narrow market there is no sense in trying to anticipate what the next big
movement is going to be – up or down.
40. A loss
never bothers me after I take it. I forget it overnight. But being wrong and
not taking the loss – that is what does the damage to the pocket book and to
the soul.
41. Never
volunteer advice and never brag of your winnings.
42. Of all
speculative blunders, there are few greater than selling what shows a profit
and keeping what shows a loss.
43.
Standing aside is a position.
44. It is
better to be more interested in the market’s reaction to new information than
in the piece of news itself.
45. If you
don’t know who you are, the markets are an expensive place to find out.
46. In the
world of money, which is a world shaped by human behavior, nobody has the
foggiest notion of what will happen in the future. Mark that word – Nobody!
Thus the successful trader does not base moves on what supposedly will happen
but reacts instead to what does happen.
47. Except
in unusual circumstances, get in the habit of taking your profit too soon. Don’t
torment yourself if a trade continues winning without you. Chances are it won’t
continue long. If it does, console yourself by thinking of all the times when
liquidating early reserved gains that you would have otherwise lost.
48. When
the ship starts to sink, don’t pray – jump!
49. Lose
your opinion – not your money.
50.
Assimilate into your very bones a set of trading rules that works for you.
