Tuesday, February 12, 2008

How To Be Cool

This is an awesome video on how to be cool. Learn and listen carefully

More Jesse Livermore Quotes

“With me I must back my opinions with my money. My losses have taught me that I must not begin to advance until I am sure I shall not have to retreat. But if I cannot advance I do not move at all. I do not mean by this that a man should not limit his losses when he is wrong. He should. But that should not breed indecision. All my life I have made mistakes, but in losing money I have gained experience and accumulated a lot of valuable don’ts. I have been flat broke several times, but my loss has never been a total loss. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here now. I always knew I would have another chance and that I would not make the same mistake a second time. I believed in myself. A man must believe in himself and his judgment if he expects to make a living at this game.”

Awesome! I love his attitude. Never give up and don't hesitate!

“The game taught me the game. And it didn’t spare the rod while teaching.”

Haha!

"And right here let me say one thing: 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 and 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."

Excellent!!!! If you really, really, really, want to know how to make big bucks - reread this 100 times. This applies to life as well. We see so many things on TV, newspaper about get rich quick schemes. I been in some of them and with other investments, such as property, if i just sit tight and wait, the big money comes when you're patient. A very simple concept but very, very hard to execute. You will find too many people who wants to get rich quick, while there are a few people that are patient and let the money comes to them.


Jesse Livermore Quotes

If you really want to learn about human psychological behavior. Study the stock market. A lot of people think that making money on the stock is all about market predictions and knowing the latest news.

If you currently/were investing in stocks, you found out that the most important factor of success is mainly your own self-control and your insight in market psychology.

I learned so much about myself when i was trading on the stock market years ago (and I haven't played it since then). I was reading several quotes by Jesse Livermore from a book that every investor should read, "Reminiscences Of A Stock Operator".

Here are a few golden quotes:

“If I hadn’t made money some of the time I might have acquired market wisdom quicker.”

This is so true. Important life lesson is learnt best when they cause pain or discomfort.

“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!”

This is a very, very true. This applies to the stock market as well in anything in life. When you lose everything, it makes you smarter - you already know what to do to avoid being in the same situation.

“A stock operator has to fight a lot of expensive enemies within himself.”

Ouch. When I lose big, I lose self control - which means i going to gamble more- that means i going to throw away all my winning. Trying to fight your internal demons is damn hard.

“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 than it did most of the more technical phases of the game of stock speculation.”

Wow! A great quote. With all these quotes, it can be applied in life as well.

How to Build Courage

A few days ago, one of my friends did one of the most uncomfortable thing he done in his life. I was proud of him. I'm not going to discuss it here to protect his privacy.

What he did was that he was planning to do that 'thing' within a month time. I was surprised that he did it a few days instead of a month or worse, never. If he acted later, he would had more sleepless nights, more worry and eventually his emotional state would negatively impact on other people as well.

He was courageous and just did it. When you become courageous, you automatically become confident.

You don't get courage from sitting on your ass all day, contemplating on how and why you should do it. He just did it. Full stop.

He picked the one thing that was the most uncomfortable and did that first. Not only did it kill off any procrastination, it built up his courage. Action cures fear. Even though it was painful for him to do it initially but it lifted up a huge weight off his shoulder.

So if you want to build up a courage, do the most uncomfortable thing first and don't hesitate - like the nike logo says - Just Do It.