Every trader looks for inspiration. Spending a lot of time staring at charts can be exhausting and at times discouraging. That's why we need motivation, not only from within but also from people who possess wisdom and knowledge about trading. Trading quotes can propel us forward. Here are trading quotes to live by and a little background on each author.
1. “You don't need to be a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with 130 IQ.” - Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett is one of the wealthiest men in the world and a synonym for success. Buffett is an American business magnate, investor, speaker and philanthropist who serves as the chairman and the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, a textile company which Buffett used as a holding company to buy National Indemnity Company, the first of many insurance companies he would buy.
2. “Do not trade every day of every year.” - Jesse Livermore
Jesse Livermore an American legend of trading. Despite his tragic death, he is one of the most recognised traders in the world and a true inspiration. He was an outsider to the stock market world, yet managed to thrive and amass vast personal wealth through ingenuity and skills again through trading experience. He earned his first serious money betting against “bucket shops,” investment houses which allowed customers to make wagers on the price of stocks without actually investing in those stocks.
3. “The key to trading success is emotional discipline. If intelligence were the key, there would be a lot more people making money trading … I know this will sound like a cliche, but the single most important reason that people lose money in the financial markets is that they don’t cut their losses short.” - Victor Sperandeo
Victor Sperandeo is a trader who benefited from the 1987 stock market crash, reportedly making over 300% in profit. He started his career on Wall Street straight out of high school, first as a quote boy and then switching to a slightly higher paying job as a statistical clerk for Standard & Poor’s. In 1971 he launched his firm Ragnar Options which became the largest OTC option dealer in the world within six months.
4. “The secret to being successful from a trading perspective is to have an indefatigable and an undying and unquenchable thirst for information and knowledge.” - Paul Tudor Jones
Paul Tudor Jones is another trader who is well known for tripling his money back in 1987 during Black Monday stock market crash. He's an investor, hedge fund manager and the founder of the Robin Hood Foundation, a philanthropic organisation mainly backed by hedge fund operations. Forbes Magazine called him the 22nd highest-earning hedge fund manager in the world.
5. “A lot of people get so enmeshed in the markets that they lose their perspective. Working longer does not necessarily equate with working smarter. In fact, sometimes is the other way around.” - Martin Schwartz
Martin Schwartz is a Wall Street trader who made his fortune successfully trading stocks, futures and options. He’s famous for winning the US investing Championship in 1984 and his book Pit Bull: Lessons from Wall Street’s Champion Day Trader.
6. “A peak performance trader is totally committed to being the best and doing whatever it takes to be the best. He feels totally responsible for whatever happens and thus can learn from mistakes. These people typically have a working business plan for trading because they treat trading as a business.” - Van K. Tharp
Van K. Tharp is one of the best trading psychologists. He is the founder and president of the Van Tharp Institute, dedicated to offering high-quality educational products and services for traders and investors around the globe. He has been helping traders create trading systems, overcome self-limiting beliefs and become the best version of themselves, since 1982.
7. “Markets are constantly in a state of uncertainty and flux and money is made by discounting the obvious and betting on the unexpected.” - George Soros
George Soros is known as the man who broke the Bank of England, skyrocketed to fame in September of 1992 when he wagered $10 billion on a single bet against the British pound. This single currency speculation netted the investor a tidy sum of $1 billion in profits in a single day, and a total of nearly $2 billion over time. He's one of the richest men in the world who dedicates his time and money to supporting progressive political causes.
8. “Win or lose, everybody gets what they want out of the market. Some people seem to like to lose, so they win by losing money.” - Ed Seykota
Ed Seykota is a commodities trader who pioneered Systems trading by using early punched card computers to test ideas on trading the markets. In 1992 he gathered together a group of traders to discuss their emotions due to his concerns that traders often allow their emotions to overrule their logic. They start gathering regularly, and Seykota develops methods to support personal growth. To this day Seykota helps traders on his Trading Tribe website.
9. “Throughout my financial career, I have continually witnessed examples of other people that I have known being ruined by a failure to respect risk. If you don’t take a hard look at risk, it will take you.” - Larry Hite
Larry Hite is a hedge fund manager who along with Ed Seykota helped pioneer computerised system trading. He decided to become a stockbroker in 1968. Since then Hite co-funded Mint Investments in 1981 and became the most significant commodity trading advisor in the world in terms of assets under management.
10. “All the math you need in the stock market you get in the fourth grade.” - Peter Lynch
Peter Lynch is a mutual fund manager and a philanthropist. His spot on the list of greatest investors stems in large part from his work with the Fidelity Magellan Fund between 1977 and 1990. During this time, the fund posted annual average returns of 29% beating the S&P 500 index in 11 out of 13 years and building the fund’s assets from $20 million to 14$ billion. The fund had the best 20-year return rate of any mutual fund in history.
Hopefully, you're able to resonate with these quotes, and you find their authors inspiring. If you need an extra dose of inspiration, make sure to write them down and keep them visible during your trading day. And remember, don’t keep them all to yourself, inspire those around you! Share with friends and other traders. You never know, maybe one day it's your or their quotes that will be inspiring people to trade.
