Van K. Tharp Quotes Page 2

“You’re playing a game of life. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, so there are both positive and negative consequences. To accept both the positive and the negative, you need to find that special place inside of you in which you can just be. From that vantage point, wins and losses are equally a part of trading. That metaphor, to me, is the real secret of the Holy Grail.”

“How will you select your trading markets? Being a good trader in a great market is better than being a superb trader in an average market. Thus, what will you do to select your trading markets?”

“One of the most useful beliefs of successful trading is that when you don’t follow your written rules, then you’ve made a mistake. In addition, if you don’t have such written rules, then everything you do is a mistake.”

“How will you handle a large infusion of new capital or a large withdrawal?”

“Lotto bias

People want to control the market, and so they tend to focus on entry, where they can 'force' the market to do a lot of things before they enter. Unfortunately, once they enter, the market is going to do what the market is going to do.”

“Reliability bias

People assume that something is accurate when it may not be. For example, market data that you use in your historical testing or that come to you live are often filled with errors. Unless you assume that errors can and do exist, you may make lots of mistakes in your trading and investing decisions.”

“This bias may be at the root of all other biases. Yet being right has little to do with making money.”

“When you understand what’s involved in winning, as do professional gamblers, you’ll tend to bet more during a winning streak and less during a losing streak. However, the average person does exactly the opposite: he or she bets more after a series of losses and less after a series of wins.”