1. “If you get in on Jones’ tip; get out on Jones’ tip”. If you are riding another person’s idea, ride it all the way.
2. Run early or not at all. Don't be an eleven o'clock bull or a five o'clock bear.
3. Woodrow Wilson said, "a governments first priority is to organize the common interest against special interests". Successful traders seek out market opportunities capitalizing on the reality that government's first priority is rarely achieved.
4. People who buy headlines eventually end up selling newspapers.
5. If you do not know who you are, the market is an expensive place to find out.
6. Never give advice-the smart don't need it and the stupid don't heed it.
7. Disregard all prognostications. 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 bases no moves on what supposedly will happen but reacts instead to what does happen.
8. Worry is not a sickness but a sign of health. If you are not worried, you are not risking enough.
9. 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 preserved gains you would otherwise have lost.
10. When the ship starts to sink, don't pray-jump!
11. Life never happens in a straight line. Any adult knows this. But we can too easily be hypnotized into forgetting it when contemplating a chart. Beware of the chartist's illusion.
12. Optimism means expecting the best, but confidence means knowing how you will handle the worst. Never make a move if you are merely optimistic.
13. Whatever you do, whether you bet with the herd or against, think it through independently first.
14. Repeatedly reevaluate your open positions. Keep asking yourself: would I put my money into this if it were presented to me for the first time today? Is this trade progressing toward the ending position I envisioned?
15. It is a safe bet that the money lost by (short term) speculation is small compared with the gigantic sums lost by those who let their investments "ride". Long term investors are the biggest gamblers as after they make a trade they often times stay with it and end up losing it all. The intelligent trader will . By acting promptly-hold losses to a minimum.
16. As a rule of thumb good trend lines should touch at least three previous highs or lows. The more points the line catches, the better the line.
17. Volume and open interest are as important to the technician as price.
18. The clearest and easiest way to determine a trend is from previous highs and lows. Higher highs and higher lows mark an uptrend, lower highs and lower lows mark a downtrend.
19. Don't sell a quiet market after a fall because a low volume sell-off is actually a very bullish situation.
20. Prices are made in the minds of men, not in the soybean field: fear and greed can temporarily drive prices far beyond their so called real value.
21. When the market breaks through a weekly or monthly high, it is a buy signal. When it breaks through the previous weekly or monthly low, it is a sell signal.
22. Every sunken ship has a chart.
23. Take a trading break. A break will give you a detached view of the market and a fresh look at yourself and the way you want to trade for the next several weeks.
24. Assimilate into your very bones a set of trading rules that works for you.
25. The final phase in a bull move is an accelerated runaway near the top. In this phase, the market always makes you believe that you have underestimated the potential bull market. The temptation to continue pyramiding your position is strong as profits have now swelled to the point that you believe your account can stand any setback. It is imperative at this juncture to take profits on your pyramids and reduce the position back to base levels. The base position is then liquidated when it becomes apparent that the move has ended.
