Edwin Lefèvre > Quotes

“There is nothing like losing all you have in the world for teaching you what not to do. And when you know what not to do in order not to lose money, you begin to learn what to do in order to win. Did you get that? You begin to learn!”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

“It never was my thinking that made the big money for me. It always was my sitting. Got that? My sitting tight! It is no trick at all to be right on the market. You always find lots of early bulls in bull markets and early bears in bear markets. I've known many men who were right at exactly the right time, and began buying or selling stocks when prices were at the very level which should show the greatest profit. And their experience invariably matched mine--that is, they made no real money out of it. Men who can both be right and sit tight are uncommon.”
― Edwin Lefèvre

“That is about all I have learned—to study general conditions, to take a position and stick to it.”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

“Speculators buy the trend; investors are in for the long haul; "they are a different breed of cats." One reason that people lose money today is that they have lost sight of this distinction; they profess to have the long term in mind and yet cannot resist following where the hot money has led.”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

“The game of speculation is the most uniformly fascinating game in the world. But it is not a game for the stupid, the mentally lazy, the person of inferior emotional balance, or the get-rich-quick adventurer. They will die poor.”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

“After spending many years in Wall Street and after making and losing millions of dollars I want to tell you this: It never was my thinking that made the big money for me. It always was my sitting. Got that? My sitting tight! It is no trick at all to be right on the market. You always find lots of early bulls in bull markets and early bears in bear markets. I've known many men who were right at exactly the right time, and began buying or selling stocks when prices were at the very level which should show the greatest profit. And their experience invariably matched mine that is, they made no real money out of it. Men who can both be right and sit tight are uncommon. I found it one of the hardest things to learn. But it is only after a stock operator has firmly grasped this that he can make big money. It is literally true that millions come easier to a trader after he knows how to trade than hundreds did in the days of his ignorance.”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

“Men who can both be right and sit tight are uncommon. I found it one of the hardest things to learn. But it is only after a stock operator has firmly grasped this that he can make big money. It is literally true that millions come easier to a trader after he knows how to trade than hundreds did in the days of his ignorance.”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

“A stock operator has to fight a lot of expensive enemies within himself.”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator: The classic novel based on the life of legendary stock market speculator Jesse Livermore

“Never try to sell at the top. It isn't wise. Sell after a reaction if there is no rally.”
― Edwin Lefèvre, REMINISCENCES OF A STOCK OPERATOR

“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.”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator : [Illustrated]

“My losses have taught me that I must not begin to advance until I am sure I shall not have to retreat. But”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

“A man must believe in himself and his judgment if he expects to make a living at this game.”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator: The classic novel based on the life of legendary stock market speculator Jesse Livermore

“Another lesson I learned early is that there is nothing new in Wall Street. There can't be because speculation is as old as the hills. Whatever happens in the stock market to-day has happened before and will happen again. I've never forgotten that. I suppose I really manage to remember when and how it happened. The fact that I remember that way is my way of capitalizing experience.”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

“The desire for constant action irrespective of underlying conditions is responsible for many losses in Wall Street even among the professionals, who feel that they must take home some money every day, as though they were working for regular wages.”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

“It takes a man a long time to learn all the lessons of all his mistakes. They say there are two sides to everything. But there is only one side to the stock market; and it is not the bull side or the bear side, but the right side. It took me longer to get that general principle fixed firmly in my mind”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

“No man can always have adequate reasons for buying or selling stocks daily - or sufficient knowledge to make his play an intelligent play.”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

“Fear and hope remain the same; therefore the study of the psychology of speculators is as valuable as it ever was. Weapons change, but strategy remains strategy, on the New York Stock Exchange as on the battlefield. I think the clearest summing up of the whole thing was expressed by Thomas F. Woodlock when he declared: "The principles of successful stock speculation are based on the supposition that people will continue in the future to make the mistakes that they have made in the past.”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

“I quite cold-bloodedly reached the conclusion that I would never be able to accomplish anything useful so long as I was worried.”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

“No, sir, nobody can make big money on what someone else tells him to do.”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator: The classic novel based on the life of legendary stock market speculator Jesse Livermore

“Money does not give a trader more comfort, because, rich or poor, he can make mistakes and it is never comfortable to be wrong.”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

“Without faith in his own judgment no man can go very far in this game. That is about all I have learned to study general conditions, to take a position and stick to it.”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

“The reason is that a man may see straight and clearly and yet become impatient or doubtful when the market takes its time about doing as he figured it must do. That is why so many men in Wall Street, who are not at all in the sucker class, not even in the third grade, nevertheless lose money. The market does not beat them. They beat themselves, because though they have brains they cannot sit tight.”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

“They say you never grow poor taking profits. No, you don't. But neither do you grow rich taking a four-point profit in a bull market.”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

“the old story of the man who was going to fight a duel the next day. His second asked him, "Are you a good shot?" "Well," said the duelist, "I can snap the stem of a wineglass at twenty paces," and he looked modest. "That's all very well," said the unimpressed second. "But can you snap the stem of the wineglass while the wineglass is pointing a loaded pistol straight at your heart?”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

“A man has to have experience and he has to pay for it.”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

“He must fear that his loss may develop into a much bigger loss, and hope that his profit may become a big profit. It is absolutely wrong to gamble in stocks the way the average man does.”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

“You can spot, for instance, where the buying is only a trifle better than the selling. A battle goes on in the stock market and the tape is your telescope. You can depend upon it seven out of ten cases.”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

“The game did not beat them. They beat themselves, because though they had brains they couldn’t sit tight. Old”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

“I noticed that in advances as well as declines, stock prices were apt to show certain habits, so to speak. There was no end of parallel cases and these made precedents to guide me.”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

“The beauty of doing business with a crook is that he always forgives you for catching him, so long as you don’t stop doing business with him.”
― Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator