William O’Neil
In our seminars we find that 98 percent of investors are unwilling to buy a stock at a new high. Yet, it is one of the great paradoxes of the stock market that what seems too high usually goes higher and what seems to low usually goes lower.
Michael Steinhardt
Good trading is a peculiar balance between the conviction to follow your ideas and the flexibility to recognize when you have made a mistake. You need to believe in something, but at the same time, you are going to be wrong a considerable number of times. The balance between confidence and humility is best learned through extensive experience and mistakes. There should be a respect for the other person on the other side of the trade. Always ask yourself: Why does he want to sell? What does he know that I don’t? Finally, you have to be intellectually honest with yourself and others. In my judgement all great traders are seekers of truth.
Michael Steinhardt
Whoever sold Texaco at $52 had a perception that was dramatically different from mine. It is incumbent on me to find out what his perception was.
Michael Steinhardt
If your problem is so great that you need to hedge it, why not address the problem directly rather than taking on a totally separate position?
Larry Hite
I have two basic rules about winning in trading as well as in life: (1) If you don’t bet, you can’t win. (2) If you lose all your chips, you can’t bet.
Larry Hite
In trading, you can define three categories of players: the trade, the floor, and the speculator. The trade has the best product knowledge and the best ways of getting out of positions. For example, if they are caught in a bad position in the futures markets, they can offset their risk in the cash market. The floor has the advantage of speed. You can never be faster than the floor. While the speculator doesn’t have the product knowledge of the speed, he does have the advantage of not having to play. The speculator can choose to only bet when the odds are in his favor. That is an important positional advantage.
Larry Hite
First, if you never bet your lifestyle, from a trading standpoint, nothing bad will ever happen to you. Second, if you know what the worst possible outcome is, it gives you tremendous freedom. The truth is that, while you can’t quantify reward, you can quantify risk.
Larry Hite
Evaluating systems solely on a calendar year basis is very arbitrary. What you really want to know are the odds for profitable performance in a holding period of any length.
Larry Hite
I have noticed that everyone who has ever told me that the markets are efficient is poor.
Ed Seykota
I think that if people look deeply enough into their trading patterns, they find that, on balance, including all their goals, they are really getting what they want, even though they may not understand it or want to admit it.
