Ed Seykota Quotes
Best 40 Quotes by Ed Seykota – Page 1 of 2
“A losing trader can do little to transform himself into a winning trader. A losing trader is not going to want to transform himself. That’s the kind of thing winning traders do.”
“Be sensitive to subtle differences between ‘intuition’ and ‘into wishing’.”
“Charting is a little like surfing. You dont have to know a lot about the physics of tides, resonance, and fluid dynamics in order to catch a good wave. You just have to be able to sense when its happening and then have the drive to act at the right time.”
“Dramatic and emotional trading experiences tend to be negative. Pride is a great banana peel, as are hope, fear, and greed. My biggest slip-ups occurred shortly after I got emotionally involved with positions.”
“Fundamentalists figure things out and anticipate change. Trend followers join the trend of the moment. Fundamentalists try to solve their feelings. Trend followers join their feelings and observe them evolve and dis-solve.”
“Fundamentals that you read about are typically useless as the market has already discounted the price, and I call them 'funny-mentals.'
I am primarily a trend trader with touches of hunches based on about twenty years of experience.
In order of importance to me are: (1) the long-term trend, (2) the current chart pattern, and (3) picking a good spot to buy or sell.
Those are the three primary components of my trading. Way down in very distant fourth place are my fundamental ideas and, quite likely, on balance, they have cost me money.”
“Having a quote machine is like having a slot machine at your desk – you end up feeding it all day long. I get my price data after the close each day.”
“I consider myself and how I do things as a kind of system which, by definition, I always follow.”
“I don’t judge success, I celebrate it. I think success has to do with finding and following one’s calling regardless of financial gain.”
“If I am bullish, I neither buy on a reaction, nor wait for strength; I am already in. I turn bullish at the instant my buy stop is hit, and stay bullish until my sell stop is hit. Being bullish and not being long is illogical.”
“If you can’t measure it, you probably can’t manage it… Things you measure tend to improve.”
“If you can’t take a small loss, sooner or later you will take the mother of all losses.”
“If you want to know everything about the market, go to the beach. Push and pull your hands with the waves. Some are bigger waves, some are smaller. But if you try to push the wave out when it’s coming in, it’ll never happen. The market is always right.”
“In order of importance to me are: 1) the long term trend, 2) the current chart pattern, and 3) picking a good spot to buy or sell.”
“It can be very expensive to try to convince the markets you are right.”
“It is a happy circumstance that when nature gives us true burning desires, she also gives us the means to satisfy them. Those who want to win and lack skill can get someone with skill to help them.”
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“I succeeded because I didn’t know that I couldn’t.”
“Longevity is the key to success.”
“Losing a position is aggravating, whereas losing your nerve is devastating.”
“Luck plays an enormous role in trading success. Some people were lucky enough to be born smart, while others were even smarter and got born lucky.”
“Markets are fundamentally volatile. No way around it. Your problem is not in the math. There is no math to get you out of having to experience uncertainty.”
“My style is basically trend following, with some special pattern recognition and money management algorithms.”
“Pyramiding instructions appear on dollar bills. Add smaller and smaller amounts on the way up. Keep your eye open at the top.”
“Risk no more that you can afford to lose, and also risk enough so that a win is meaningful.”
“Speculate with less than 10% of your liquid net worth. Risk less than 1% of your speculative account on a trade. This tends to keep the fluctuations in the trading account small, relative to net worth. This is essential as large fluctuations can engage emotions and lead to feeling-justifying drama.”
“Systems don’t need to be changed. The trick is for a trader to develop a system with which he is compatible.”
“Systems trading is ultimately discretionary. The manager still has to decide how much risk to accept, which markets to play, and how aggressively to increase and decrease the trading base as a function of equity change.”
“The elements of good trading are:
1) cutting losses.
2) cutting losses.
3) cutting losses.
If you can follow these three rules, you may have a chance.”
“The feelings we accept and enjoy rarely interfere with trading.”
“The key to long-term survival and prosperity has a lot to do with the money management techniques incorporated into the technical system.
There are old traders and there are bold traders, but there are very few old, bold traders.”
“The markets are the same now as they were five to ten years ago because they keep changing – just like they did then.”
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“A good trader once told me that his personal psychology did not enter into his trading at all because everything he did was automated. I responded: That’s interesting, but what if you decide not to take one of your signals? He responded: That would never happen!
About six years later this trader went out of business as a professional trader because his partner did not take a trade. That trade would have made them very profitable for the year because it was a huge winner, but they’d had so many losses in that particular area that his partner decided not to take it.”
