Thought For The Day

It takes a man a long time to learn all the lessons of all his mistakes.
Jesse Livermore

 

They say there are two sides to everything. But there is only one side to the stock market; and it is not the bull side or the bear side, but the right side. It took me longer to get that general principle fixed firmly in my mind than it did most of the more technical phases of the game of stock speculation.
Jesse Livermore

 

With me I must back my opinions with money. My losses have taught me that I must not begin to advance until I am sure I shall not have to retreat. But if I cannot advance I do not move at all. I do not mean by this that a man should not limit his losses when he is wrong. He should. But that should not breed indecision.
Jesse Livermore

 

All my life I have made mistakes, but in losing money I have gained experience and accumulated a lot of valuable don’ts. I have been flat broke several times, but my loss has never been a total loss. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here now. I always knew I would have another chance and that I would not make the same mistake a second time. I believed in myself.
Jesse Livermore

 

A man must believe in himself and his judgement if he expects to make a living at this game. That is why I don’t believe in tips.
Jesse Livermore

 

If I buy stocks on Smith’s tip I must sell those same stocks on Smith’s tip. I am depending on him. Suppose Smith is away on a holiday when the selling time comes around? No sir, nobody can make big money on what someone else tells him.
Jesse Livermore

 

I know from experience that nobody can give me a tip or a series of tips that will make more money for me than my own judgement.
Jesse Livermore

 

It took me five years to learn to play the game intelligently enough to make big money when I was right. Jesse Livermore

 

I went broke several times, and that is never pleasant., but the way I lost money is the way everybody loses money who loses money in Wall Street.
Jesse Livermore

 

Speculation is a hard and trying business, and a speculator must be on the job all the time or he’ll soon have no job to be on.
Jesse Livermore

 

The game taught me the game. And it didn’t spare the rod while teaching.
Jesse Livermore

 

If somebody had told me my method would not work I nevertheless would have tried it out to make sure for myself, for when I am wrong only one thing convinces me of it, and that is to lose money. And I am only right when I make money. That is speculating.
Jesse Livermore

 

I bought a hundred at 84. I got out at 85 in less than a half hour.
Jesse Livermore

 

I knew of course, there must be a limit to the advances and an end to the crazy buying of A. O. T – Any Old Thing – and I got bearish. But every time I sold I lost money, and if it hadn’t been that I ran darn quick I ‘d have lost a heap more.
Jesse Livermore

 

Everything happened as I had foreseen. I was dead right and – I lost every cent I had. I was wiped out by something that was unusual.
Jesse Livermore

 

I did worse than not see it, I kept on trading, in and out, regardless of the execution. You see, I never could trade with a limit. I must take my chances with the market. That is what I am trying to beat – the market, not the particular price.
Jesse Livermore

 

When I think I should sell, I sell. When I think stocks will go up, I buy. My adherence to that general principle of speculation saved me.
Jesse Livermore

 

I can’t tell you how it came to take me so many years to learn that instead of placing piking bets on what the next few quotations were going to be, my game was to anticipate what was going to happen in a big way. Jesse Livermore

 

If I hadn’t made money some of the time I might have acquired market wisdom quicker.
Jesse Livermore

 

My winnings were not quite enough to offset both my losses and my living expenses.
Jesse Livermore