The market does not beat them. They beat themselves, because though they have brains they cannot sit tight.
Interpretation
Successful investors can face defeat because of their lack of discipline and patience.
This quote by Jesse Lauriston Livermore emphasizes the importance of self-discipline and emotional control in achieving success in the financial market. Despite having intelligence or analytical skills, many investors fail to succeed because they allow their emotions and impulsiveness to dictate their decisions, leading to poor outcomes.
In practice
In a finance seminar discussing the psychological aspects of trading.
The average man doesn't wish to be told that it is a bull or a bear market. What he desires is to be told specifically which particular stock to buy or sell. He wants to get something for nothing. He does not wish to work. He doesn't even wish to have to think.
After spending many years in Wall Street and after making and losing millions of dollars I want to tell you this: It never was my thinking that made the big money for me. It always was my sitting. Got that? My sitting tight!
Don't take action with a trade until the market, itself, confirms your opinion. Being a little late in a trade is insurance that your opinion is correct. In other words, don't be an impatient trader.
At long as a stock is acting right, and the market is right, do not be in a hurry to take profits. One should never permit speculative ventures to run into investments.
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.
Men who can both be right and sit tight are uncommon. I found it one of the hardest things to learn. But it is only after a stock operator has firmly grasped this that he can make big money.
As big as my ego may be, I'm really not of the belief that I can't be replaced. I didn't invent the wheel. There's someone else out there who can do what I do, maybe a little differently. I believe that Kiss is bigger than its individual members.
Excellence is the accumulation of hundreds of minute decisions; it is execution at the most granular level. Once you accept the idea that you should give in to things that make no sense because other people do those things and you want to appear reasonable, you are on a path towards mediocrity.
The thrill of victory in business blows away the thrill of victory in sports. Business is a sport 24/7/365.
Not the maker of plans and promises, but rather the one who offers faithful service in small matters. This is the person who is most likely to achieve what is good and lasting.
Great companies don't just have one founding moment. They have many founding moments.
Talent sets the floor, character sets the ceiling
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.