Randy McKay Quotes

“As long as you’re in the position, there’s tremendous anxiety. Once you get out, you begin to forget about it. If you can’t put it out of your mind, you can’t trade.”

“Every trader will go through cold spells.”

“I basically learned that you must get out of your losses immediately. It's not merely a matter of how much you can afford to risk on a given trade, but you also have to consider how many potential future winners you might miss because of the effect of the larger loss on your mental attitude and trading size.”

“I never try to buy a bottom or sell a top. Even if you manage to pick the bottom, the market can end up sitting there for years and tying up your capital.”

“I used to like buying or selling on breakouts, but nowadays the breakouts that work look similar to the breakouts that are sucker plays. I now buy on breaks and sell on rallies.”

“I'll keep reducing my trading size as long as I'm losing.”

“I’ve got thirty-eight markets on my screen. If I miss moves in ten of them, there will be ten others that have a price move.”

“My money management techniques are extremely conservative. I never risk anything approaching the total amount of money in my account, let alone my total funds.”

“One of the things I did that worked in those early years was analyzing every single trade I made. You need to determine why the winners are winners and the losers are losers.”

“The beginning of a price move is usually hard to trade because you’re not sure whether you’re right about the direction of the trend. The end is hard because people start taking profits and the market gets very choppy. The middle of the move is what I call the easy part.”

“The worst thing that can happen to you is being right and still losing money.”

“Virtually every successful trader ultimately ended up with a trading style suited to his personality.”

“When I get hurt in the market, I get the hell out. It doesn't matter at all where the market is trading. I just get out, because I believe that once you're hurt in the market, your decisions are going to be far less objective than they are when you're doing well If you stick around when the market is severely against you, sooner or later they are going to carry you out.”

“When you're trading well, you have a better mental attitude. When you're trading poorly, you start wishing and hoping. Instead of getting into trades you think will work, you end up getting into trades you hope will work.”

“You have to be more concerned about the moves you’re in than the moves you’re not in.”