Market Psychology Quotes

"Scared money never wins." Old Wall Street Maxim

“[I]ntuition comes from experience.” Charles Faulkner

“Few people have absorbed the hard neuroscience research that reasons arrive afterwards.”
Charles Faulkner

“[G]iven the choice between a simple, easy to understand, explanation that works and a difficult one that doesn’t, people tend to pick the latter...Confusing hindsight with foresight, and complexity with insight....”
Charles Faulkner

“’I am competent to be confident. I know what’s going on in these markets. If I don’t know, I get out.’”
Charles Faulkner

“No matter what kind of math you use, you wind up measuring volatility with your gut.”
Ed Sekoya

“Playing it safe is dangerous.”
Charles Sanford

“The smarter you are (or think you are), the more you’ll think, and the less money you’ll make.” Jake Bernstein

“Traders who can act quickly, evaluating information and reacting to it on a gut level, are often traders who succeed.”
Jake Bernstein

“The job of traders is to follow, not forecast.” Jake Bernstein

“Being aggressive at the wrong time can be very costly.”

Jake Bernstein

“Fear narrows attention.”
Mark Douglas

“Accept a loss without guilt, anger, shame or self punishment.” Mark Douglas

“The more I trusted myself the more I could focus my attention on subtle relationships in the market’s behavior to learn new things about the market helping me become a better trader....the less I cared about whether or not I was wrong, the clearer things became, making it much easier to move in and out of positions, cutting my losses short to make myself mentally available to take the next opportunity.” Mark Douglas

“Entering a trade will involve all your beliefs about opportunity in relation to risk, missing out, needing a sure thing, and not being wrong. Exiting a trade will involve all your beliefs about loss, greed, failure, and control. Considering the unlimited potential for profits, entering the market [will be] much easier...because exiting will require you to confront your beliefs about greed, loss, and failure in relationship to the constant temptation of the possibility for unlimited profits.” Mark Douglas

“[G]reed [is] fear founded in a belief that there will never be enough.” Mark Douglas

"Bulls win, bears win, hogs [or pigs] get slaughtered." Old Wall Street Maxim

“In effect, his fear of losing causes him to exit the trade early for a small profit regardless of whatever the profit potential was in that trade. Once he is out he will agonize over the profits he left on the table and wonder why he just couldn’t hang in there a little longer not realizing that his fear of losing actually caused him to lose those additional profits.” Mark Douglas, on how fear of loss leads to loss, just as fear of dogs may lead to an increased risk of attack from dogs


“The problem with the poor is they submit; with the rich is they don’t know what they are loved for.” Charles Bukowski