Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Sitting Tight in a Correction

An excerpt from Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre
"I think it was a long step forward in my trading education when I realized at last that when old Mr. Partridge kept on telling the other customers, "Well, you know this is a bull market!" he really meant to tell them that the big money was not in the individual fluctuations but in the main movements - that is, not in reading the tape but in sizing up the entire market and its trend...It never was my thinking that made the big money for me. It always was my sitting...Men who can both be right and sit tight are uncommon. I found it one of the hardest things to learn...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. 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...nevertheless lose money. The market does not beat them. They beat themselves, because though they have the brains they cannot sit tight."

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