Jack Schwager did every aspiring trader a service when he wrote his Market Wizards series of books. For those unfamiliar, the series is one-on-one interviews of legendary traders like Paul Tudor Jones, Michael Marcus, and Tony Saliba where they share about their challenges in becoming the traders they are today.
Thanks to Barry Ritholz at The Big Picture, we came across this synopsis of the 23 trading lessons from Simply Options Trading. It’s a quick read, so enjoy.
While all of these are tremendous lessons, the bolded ones are particularly poignant (from Simply Options Trading):
- Successful traders use trading methods that suit their personality.
- You can’t control what the market does, but you can control your reaction to the market.
- To be a winner, you have to be willing to take a loss.
- HOPE should never be in your vocabulary.
- If you are on a losing streak, reduce your position size.
- Don’t underestimate the time it takes to succeed as a trader.
- Approach trading as a vocation, not a hobby.
- Have a business / trading plan.
- Be honest about your weakness and DEAL with it.
- Know when to do nothing.
- Being a great trader is a process. It’s a race with no finish line.
- Never ever listen to other opinions. Make your own trading decisions
- Analyze your past trades. Study what happened to the stocks after you closed the position.
- Don’t take on excessive leverage. It only takes one mistake to knock you out of the game.
- Great traders continue to learn and adapt.
- Don’t just stand there and let the truck roll over you.
- Being wrong is acceptable, but staying wrong is totally unacceptable.
- Contain your losses.
- Good traders manage the downside; They don’t worry about the upside.
- Wall street research reports will tend to be biased.
- Knowing when to get out of a position is as important as when to get in.
- To excel, you have to put in hard work.
- Discipline, Discipline, Discipline!!!
What do you think of these takeaways? Put them in the comments below.
