"In trading, if you don't have pre-defined rules that exactly control your entry and exit from a position, how do you know that you arn't just gambling?" Me 13 October 2007, 20:05 GMT whilst supping a Cobra beer ;-)
Great contributions friends--just keep them coming---
"If you intend to be a good trader and an accurate forecaster, do not take a survey of market opinion. (If you do find a colleague who is consistently correct, either learn his system so that you can use his tools with your own intuition and experience or delegate part of your trading strategy development to him.) Remember that most people arrive at conclusions based on emotional bias, called “talking one’s position,” rather than by properly using a technical or fundamental approach."
"To play the market properly requires silence, and seclusion to examine the situation, and to appraise, and deliberate on new information that comes to hand during the trading day. One must always have a clear strategy to play the market and clear rules to follow."
“… really believe that, what is, is all that is important – at least with regarding making decisions. If you can put aside what should be, what could be, what ought to be, what would have, could have, should have occurred, and just pay attention to what is actually happening, the act of paying attention transforms what is. The greatest action, the wisest, the best action that you can take in almost any situation is to stay with what is, instead of jumping to conclusions or trying to come up with conclusions.”
"It is the very foundation of strategy to be able to adapt to any situation and continue fighting without losing heart. You gain this ability by practicing day in and day out with intensity."
"In a certain sense, reading charts is like reading music, in which you endeavor to interpret correctly the composer's ideas and the expression of his art. Just so a chart of the averages, or of a single stock, reflects the ideas, hopes, ambitions and purposes of the mass mind operating in the market, or of a manipulator handling a single stock.
The study of charts is not as some people claim, the mere identification of certain labeled patterns made by the actions of stocks. That sort of thing borders on the mechanical and does little to aid in the development of one's judgment. But when a student undertakes to read from his charts the purposes and objective of those who are responsible for a stock's action in the market, he is beginning to see, in a true light, the meaning of scientific stock speculation."
Guyz, thanks again for your contributions---I like those quotes, Narafa---
"As traders, we cannot afford the luxury of wishing and hoping because it puts us in a passive relationship with the markets. When we wish and hope, we are shifting responsibility on to the markets for making something happen instead of confronting the conditions and doing something about it ourselves. If we find ourselves wishing and hoping, it is an excellent indication that we don't know what is going on and as a result need to get out of the markets until we do."
"The movement of price in any and all free markets is a function of the laws of pure supply and demand. Buying and selling opportunity emerges when this simple and straight forward relationship is out of balance.
For the astute trader and investor there is only one way to make money in any market and it has nothing to do with the news, company fundamentals, earnings reports, technical indicators on a chart, analyst statements, or the economy."
"I have a theory that the public is always guided to do the wrong thing so that they will make a contribution to the market infrastructure and provide funds for the massive communication costs, buildings, salaries, brokerage house traders, dealers, hedge funds, and mutual funds that must survive in order for the whole ball of wax to continue."
