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!
Interpretation
Success in investing relies more on patience than intelligence or strategy.
Jesse Lauriston Livermore's quote emphasizes the crucial role of patience in achieving financial success. Despite his extensive experience and knowledge in the market, he underscores that the most significant factor in his wealth was not his strategies or analysis but rather his ability to remain steadfast and hold onto his investments during turbulent times.
In practice
A motivational speaker may use this quote during a workshop on investment strategies.
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.
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.
At long as a stock is acting right, and the market is right, do not be in a hurry to take profits. One should never permit speculative ventures to run into investments.
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.
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 what people actually did in the stock market that counted - not what they said they were going to do.
That man is a success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much.
The same instincts that make us good students can make us lousy entrepreneurs.
Personal discipline, when it becomes a way of life in our personal, family, and career lives, will enable us to do some incredible things.
Beating John Landy was my defining race.
If you can prove that you're in that elite class on a consistent basis, it speaks volumes about a player's longevity. It also says that as a player, you were steady, stable, and great and that you deserve to be recognized.
It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.
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