Quotes by Jesse Livermore
“Do not anticipate and move without market confirmation—being a little late in your trade is your insurance that you are right or wrong.” -Jesse Livermore
“The good speculators always wait and have patience, waiting for the market to confirm their judgment.” -Jesse Livermore
“{Limit} interest in too many stocks at one time. It is much easier to watch a few than many.” -Jesse Livermore
“As long as a stock is acting right, and the market is right, do not be in a hurry to take a profit. You know you are right, because if you were not, you would have no profit at all. Let it ride and ride along with it. It may grow into a very large profit, and as long as the “action of the market does not give you any cause to worry,” have the courage of your convictions and stay with it.” -Jesse Livermore
“One should never sell a stock, because it seems high-priced.” -Jesse Livermore
“Profits always take care of themselves but losses never do.” The speculator has to insure himself against considerable losses by taking the first small loss. In so doing, he keeps his account in order so that at some future time, when he has a constructive idea, he will be in a position to go into another deal, taking on the same amount of stock as he had when he was wrong.” -Jesse Livermore
“It is significant that a large part of a market movement occurs in the last forty-eight hours of a play, and that is the most important time to be in it.” -Jesse Livermore
“A speculator should make it a rule each time he closes out a successful deal to take one-half of his profits and lock this sum up in a safe deposit box. The only money that is ever taken out of Wall Street by speculators is the money they draw out of their accounts after closing a successful deal.” -Jesse Livermore
“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.” -Jesse Livermore
“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!”-Jesse Livermore
“Experience has proved to me that real money made in speculating has been in commitments in a stock or commodity showing a profit right from the start.” -Jesse Livermore
“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.” -Jesse Livermore
“There is only one side to the stock market; and it is not the bull side or the bear side, but the right side” -Jesse Livermore
“The market does not beat them. They beat themselves, because though they have brains they cannot sit tight.” -Jesse Livermore
“The average man doesn’t wish to be told that it is a bull or a bear market. What he desires is to be told specifically which particular stock to buy or sell. He wants to get something for nothing. He does not wish to work. He doesn’t even wish to have to think.” -Jesse Livermore
“He will risk half his fortune in the stock market with less reflection that he devotes to the selection of a medium-priced automobile.” -Jesse Livermore
“On Pat Hearne – He made money in stocks, and that made people ask him for advice. He would never give any. If they asked him point-blank for his opinion about the wisdom of their commitments he used a favorite race-track maxim of his: “You can’t tell till you bet.”” -Jesse Livermore
“I never hesitate to tell a man that I am bullish or bearish. But I do not tell people to buy or sell any particular stock. In a bear market all stocks go down and in a bull market they go up.” -Jesse Livermore
“In a narrow market, when prices are not getting anywhere to speak of but move within a narrow range, there is no sense in trying to anticipate what the next big movement is going to be. The thing to do is to watch the market, read the tape to determine the limits of the get nowhere prices, and make up your mind that you will not take an interest until the prices breaks through the limit in either direction.” -Jesse Livermore
“I don’t know whether I make myself plain, but I never lose my temper over the stock market. I never argue with the tape. Getting sore at the market doesn’t get you anywhere.” -Jesse Livermore
“Instead of hoping he must fear and instead of fearing he must hope. He must fear that his loss may develop into a much bigger loss, and hope that his profit may become a big profit.” -Jesse Livermore
“The desire for constant action irrespective of underlying conditions is responsible for many losses on 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.” -Jesse Livermore
“Remember this: When you are doing nothing, those speculators who feel they must trade day in and day out, are laying the foundation for your next venture. You will reap benefits from their mistakes.” -Jesse Livermore
“If I buy stocks on Smith’s tip I must sell those same stocks on Smith’s tip. I am depending on him. Suppose Smith is away on a holiday when the selling time comes around? A man must believe in himself and his judgement if he expects to make a living at this game. That is why I don’t believe in tips.” -Jesse Livermore
“A man must study general conditions, to seize them so as to be able to anticipate probabilities.” -Jesse Livermore
“Losing money is the least of my troubles. A loss never troubles me after I take it. I forget it overnight. But being wrong – not taking the loss – that is what does the damage to the pocket book and to the soul.” -Jesse Livermore
“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 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.”-Jesse Livermore
“I did precisely the wrong thing. The cotton showed me a loss and I kept it. The wheat showed me a profit and I sold it out. Of all the speculative blunders there are few greater than trying to average a losing game. Always sell what shows you a loss and keep what shows you a profit.” -Jesse Livermore
“If you can’t sleep at night because of your stock market position, then you have gone too far. If this is the case, then sell your position down to the sleeping level.” -Jesse Livermore
“A prudent speculator never argues with the tape. Markets are never wrong, opinions often are.” -Jesse Livermore
“Professional traders have always had some system or other based upon their experience and governed either by their attitude towards speculation or by their desires.” -Jesse Livermore
“Don’t take action with a trade until the market, itself, confirms your opinion. Being a little late in a trade is insurance that your opinion is correct. In other words, don’t be an impatient trader.” -Jesse Livermore
“It is foolhardy to make a second trade, if your first trade shows you a loss. Never average losses. Let this thought be written indelibly upon your mind.” -Jesse Livermore
“One of the most helpful things that anybody can learn is to give up trying to catch the last eighth – or the first. These two are the most expensive eighths in the world. They have cost stock traders, in the aggregate, enough millions of dollars to build a concrete highway across the continent.” -Jesse Livermore
“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.” -Jesse Livermore
“People who look for easy money invariable pay for the privilege of proving conclusively that it cannot be found on this earth.” -Jesse Livermore
“It is what people actually did in the stock market that counted – not what they said they were going to do.” -Jesse Livermore