Quote of the Day - Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
“Let’s face it, these are the moments we relish. We only realize it in hindsight – mostly because we’re too afraid to put ourselves out on a limb,” he said. “I’ve never been afraid to lose money, and I sometimes dare mother-market to do her worst.”
“We brace for impact way more often than impact actually occurs. All the clenching and imagining and playacting and anxiety — our culture has fooled us into thinking that this is a good thing, that it’s a form of preparation. It’s not. It’s merely experiencing failure in advance, failure that rarely happens.”
“The great mistake is to anticipate the outcome of the engagement; you ought not to be thinking of whether it ends in victory or defeat. Let nature take its course, and your tools will strike at the right moment.”
“One has to investigate the principle in on thing or one event exhaustively. Things and the self are governed by the same principle. If you understand one, you understand the other, for the truth within and the truth without are incidental.”
“A vivid example of doing small things well is Rory McIlroy, the young golfer who recently won the British Open. He revealed, before the competition, that he had two secret words that were his cues for success. He invited the media to guess the words, but no one was successful. The words were “process” and “spot”. His entire focus was on the process of taking the right swing with his long shots and hitting desired spots on the green with his putting. No thoughts of where he stood in the competition; no thoughts of how he performed on the previous hole. Rory was entirely present-centered, absorbed in the mechanics of doing the right things and letting the score take care of itself.”
“The market will seldom reward the carelessness of trades born of desperation.”
“The best decisions he has made in his life, he said, were completely unexpected, the ones that cut against convention. Then he went even further. He said that every decision he has forced himself to make because it was unexpected has been a good one. It was refreshing to hear a case for unpredictability in this age of careful career planning. It would be nice if it were true.”
“Now, if you know you have won the game of trading before you start, then there is no problem taking a loss, because you understand that is just part of the way of getting to the ultimate gain.”
“The point is that if you listen to anyone else’s opinion, no matter how skillful or smart they might be, I guarantee it is going to end badly.”
“The hard work in trading comes in the preparation. The actual process of trading, however, should be effortless.”
“The essence of the idea is that you have to learn to let the arrow shoot itself… In trading, just as in archery, whenever there is effort, force, straining, struggling, or trying, it’s wrong… The perfect trade requires no effort.”