Jesse Livermore Quotes Page 2

“Few people ever make money on tips. Beware of inside information.”

“Go long when stocks reach a new high. Sell short when they reach a new low.”

“I always made money when I was sure I was right before I began. ”

“I become a buyer as soon as a stock makes a new high on its movement after having had a normal reaction.”

“I began to realize that the big money must necessarily be in the big swing.”

“I cannot fear to be wrong because I never think I'm wrong until I am proven wrong. In fact, I am uncomfortable unless I am capitalizing my experience.”

“I did exactly the wrong thing. The cotton showed me a loss and I kept it. The wheat showed me a profit and I sold it out. Of all the speculative blunders there are few greater than trying to average a losing game. Always sell what shows you a loss and keep what shows you a profit.”

“I didn’t always win. My plan of trading was sound enough and won oftener than it lost.”

“I had a hard time convincing my mother that I was not gambling, but making money by figuring.”

“I had to study what was going to happen; to anticipate stock movements. That sounds asininely commonplace, but you know what I mean.”

“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. ”

“I must buy on a rising scale. I don’t buy long stocks on a scale down I buy on a scale up.”

“I never argue with the tape. Getting sore at the market does not get you anywhere.”

“I never hesitate to tell a man that I am bullish or bearish. But I do not tell people to buy or sell any particular stock. In a bear market all stocks go down and in a bull market they go up.”

“I noticed that in advances as well as declines, stock prices were apt to show certain habits, so to speak. ”

“I was convinced whatever was wrong was wrong with me and not with the market.”

“I was utterly free of speculative prejudices. The bear side doesn't appeal to me any more than the bull side, or vice versa. My one steadfast prejudice is against being wrong.”

“If a man didn't make mistakes he'd own the world in a month. But if he didn't profit by his mistakes he wouldn't own a blessed thing.”

“If a man is both wise and lucky, he will not make the same mistake twice. But he will make any one of ten thousand brothers or cousins of the original.”

“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. ”

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

“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.”

“If the unusual never happened there would be no difference in people and then there wouldn't be any fun in life. The game would become merely a matter of addition and subtraction. It would make of us a race of bookkeepers with plodding minds. It's the guessing that develops a man's brain power.”

“If you can’t sleep at night because of your stock market position, then you have gone too far. If this is the case, then sell your position down to the sleeping level.”

“If you don’t know who you are, then the stock market is an expensive way to find out.”

“Ignorance at twenty-two isn't a structural defect.”

“In a bull market and particularly in booms the public at first makes money which it later loses simply by overstaying the bull market.”

“In a bull market your game is to buy and hold until you believe that the bull market is near it’s end. To do this you must study general conditions and not tips or special factors affecting individual stocks. Then get out of all your stocks; get out for keeps! ”

“In a narrow market, when prices are not getting anywhere to speak of but move within a narrow range, there is no sense in trying to anticipate what the next big movement is going to be. The thing to do is to watch the market, read the tape to determine the limits of the get nowhere prices, and make up your mind that you will not take an interest until the prices breaks through the limit in either direction.”

“In any sector, trade the leading stock – the one showing the strongest trend.”