Richard Wyckoff Quotes

“A miner must understand how dynamite works before he can safely use it.”

“A profit is not a profit until it is realized.”

“A sound idea is like a pebble thrown into a pool. The circles of its influence continually widen.”

“A stop-order a few points away is insurance against a large loss in case you are wrong.”

“A sure way to avoid big investment losses: Once a week close out every investment that shows a loss. Keep only those which are moving your favor.”

“Are you riding a dead horse? Get off and get on a live one.”

“Beethoven's sonatas are in any piano if you just happen to hit the right notes, and there is big money in Wall Street for anyone who learns how to play the market.”

“Cheap advice is plentiful.”

“Do not expect your ship to come in unless you have sent one out.”

“Do not operate for the sake of making trades, but only for the purpose of making money.”

“Don't think because you own a stock it can't go down much farther. Any stock can go anywhere.”

“Good coffee is a benefit, but great coffee is a reward, and the difference between good and great is just pennies a day.”

“Hearsay is half lies.”

“How much could you have saved in the past few years if you had known how to limit your risk and when to sell out?”

“How to have lots of money with which to buy bargains in slumps and depression: Sell out in booms.”

“I do not know of any other profession which may be entered under such conditions: where there is no competition; wherein a trader may depend solely upon himself; control his own funds, and ask no one for advice.”

“I have yet to find a man, in or out of Wall Street, who is able to make money in markets continuously or uninterruptedly. Like anyone else, I have good and bad periods.”

“I not only aim to make money, but to keep it and make it grow.”

“If everybody had placed a stop order on stocks held and purchases made in 1929, there would have been no panic.”

“If insiders traded like outsiders, the insiders would soon be outsiders.”

“If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it.”

“In stock trading you must have plenty of nerve but no 'nerves'.”

“It is better to lose the saddle than the horse.”

“Look for your money where you lost it.”

“Losses are punishment for bad judgment.”

“Luck is a much overworked alibi.”

“Mental poise is an indispensable factor in tape reading. The mind should be absolutely free to concentrate upon the work; there should be no feeling that certain things are to be accomplished within a given time; no fear, anxiety, or greed.”

“Never buy an egg until it is laid.”

“Never get married to a security.”

“Successful tape reading is a study of force; it requires ability to judge which side has the greatest pulling power and one must have the courage to go with that side.”

“Successful trading depends on a systematic control of losses and the securing of profits in excess of those losses.”

“Take advice only from those who have been successful.”

“The approach is not to limit the choice, but to provide a broader choice. It's appropriate to have choices that are indulgent and others that are better for you.”

“The average man or woman never makes a success of day trading by reading moment by moment transactions of the market. Man or woman seldom makes a success of anything! That is true of trading stocks, business endeavors or even hobbies! Success in day trading usually results from years of painstaking effort and absolute concentration upon the subject. It requires the devotion of one's whole time and attention to - the tape. He should have no other business or profession. A man cannot serve two masters, and the tape is a tyrant.”

“The investor who always chooses securities of companies who constantly put money back into their properties, will scarcely ever go wrong.”

“The more statistics, the more confusion.”

“The most perfect example of following the trend would be a monkey clinging to the back of a boa constrictor as it wriggled through the jungle.”

“The only fundamental factor that really counts in the stock market is The Law of Supply and Demand.”

“The tape reader’s profits should develop naturally. He should buy or sell because it is the thing to do – not because he wants to make a profit or fears to make a loss.”

“The trained man has all the advantages on his side; the untrained man invites all the tragic possibilities of failure.”

“The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of work.”

“There is no place in the modern world for the unskilled; no one can hope for any genuine success who fails to give himself the most complete special education.”

“To trade in stocks and gain an ultimate profit is very difficult; most people do not succeed because they never learn how to trade. They think they are investing when they really are speculating.”

“Trading without scientifically limiting your risk is like wearing your pants without a belt or suspenders.”

“Try and recall all the big losses you ever had. Then remember that every one of them – without exception – could have been avoided if you had been wise enough to accept a small loss when the stock went against you.”

“When a tape reader has his emotions well in hand, he will play as though the game were dominoes.”

“When in doubt, stay out. If you are in, and grow doubtful, get out.”

“Where certainty ends, speculation begins.”

“You should either make a business of trading or else not try to be a trader. You cannot be successful at trading any more than you can be at mining, manufacturing, doctoring or anything else, unless you are trained for it.”