Quotes from Edwin Lefevre

And for a sucker play a man gets sucker pay; for the paymaster is on the job and never losses the pay envelope that is coming to you.

It never was my thinking that made the big money for me. It was always my sitting. Got that? My sitting tight!

The speculators deadly enemies are: Ignorance, greed, fear and hope. All the statute books in the world and all the rules of all the Exchanges on earth cannot eliminate these from the human animal.

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!

That is about all I have learned—to study general conditions, to take a position and stick to it.

Speculators buy the trend; investors are in for the long haul; they are a different breed of cats. One reason that people lose money today is that they have lost sight of this distinction; they profess to have the long term in mind and yet cannot resist following where the hot money has led.

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.

If a man didn't make mistakes he'd own the world in a month. But if he didn't profit by his mistakes he wouldn't own a blessed thing.

My losses have taught me that I must not begin to advance until I am sure I shall not have to retreat. But

Fear and hope remain the same; therefore the study of the psychology of speculators is as valuable as it ever was. Weapons change, but strategy remains strategy, on the New York Stock Exchange as on the battlefield. I think the clearest summing up of the whole thing was expressed by Thomas F. Woodlock when he declared: The principles of successful stock speculation are based on the supposition that people will continue in the future to make the mistakes that they have made in the past.

Another lesson I learned early is that there is nothing new in Wall Street. There can't be because speculation is as old as the hills. Whatever happens in the stock market to-day has happened before and will happen again. I've never forgotten that. I suppose I really manage to remember when and how it happened. The fact that I remember that way is my way of capitalizing experience.

A man must believe in himself and his judgment if he expects to make a living at this game.

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

The game of speculation is the most uniformly fascinating game in the world. But it is not a game for the stupid, the mentally lazy, the person of inferior emotional balance, or the get-rich-quick adventurer. They will die poor.

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

The desire for constant action irrespective of underlying conditions is responsible for many losses in 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.

No man can always have adequate reasons for buying or selling stocks daily - or sufficient knowledge to make his play an intelligent play.

Never try to sell at the top. It isn't wise. Sell after a reaction if there is no rally.

Money does not give a trader more comfort, because, rich or poor, he can make mistakes and it is never comfortable to be wrong.

Without faith in his own judgment no man can go very far in this game. That is about all I have learned to study general conditions, to take a position and stick to it.

No, sir, nobody can make big money on what someone else tells him to do.

the old story of the man who was going to fight a duel the next day. His second asked him, Are you a good shot? Well, said the duelist, I can snap the stem of a wineglass at twenty paces, and he looked modest. That's all very well, said the unimpressed second. But can you snap the stem of the wineglass while the wineglass is pointing a loaded pistol straight at your heart?

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, who are not at all in the sucker class, not even in the third grade, nevertheless lose money. The market does not beat them. They beat themselves, because though they have brains they cannot sit tight.

I quite cold-bloodedly reached the conclusion that I would never be able to accomplish anything useful so long as I was worried.