Would like to learn and share some "Useful Quotes related to Options Trading". Adding your comments would be greatly appreciated. Please kindly contribute! Thanks in advance!
"Without an accurate opinion of the future you can't make money in options. ... You must develop your own trading philosophy of the markets based on valid strategies that are proven over time. ... In options trading the analogous fundamental for establishing a "fair price" is future volatility." --- Ward
"If you can't be an independent thinker, you won't make it in this business. If you have to listen to others, this is the wrong job for you. You can't just copy and paste a trading style from someone else and make millions. Trust me, it's not that easy. You know Metooxx had a great line from years ago here on ET when someone asked him how he traded? His answer was, we do all the things that people say don't work, and we make them work. Now there is a guy that is making money. I guess that is why he is trading in the Bahamas on a tropical island and others here are looking to copy and paste. Trading is like anything else in life, you have to be willing to be the lone wolf. When you get to the fork in the road, you have to be willing to take the road less traveled. Only the most disciplined, the most strong, the most independent can endure such a trip. To be willing to defy the gods of trading and popular opinion and believe in yourself enough and have the conviction to do the right thing. That is a trader gentleman." --- Maverick74
"smoke em if you got em" "hit the bid or hit the road" "can you tighten up that market a bit? Its for a new guy" "I sold em higher in Aisa last night" "I'll buy em at that price till the cows come home" "Mooo"
My favorite is about selling gamma being equivalent to picking up pennies in front of an on-coming bulldozer... It's old, tired and oft disputed. Still, once you've been under the machine, you know just how true the statement actually is.
" MURPHYâS LAWS FOR COMMODITY TRADERS 1. It is morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money 2. Everyone has a trading strategy that wonât work 3. For every expert who says prices are going up, there is one who says they are going down 4. If you can drink it, donât trade it 5. The market is not logical; it is psychological 6. The successful speculator is one who dies before his time comes 7. If you drop a dead cat far enough, it will bounce 8. The market goes your way the day after your stop was hit ITS COROLLARY 9. The big move begins the day after your option expires 10. He who sells uncovered options goes broke 11. If you feel like doubling up a profitable position, slam your dialing finger in the drawer until the feeling goes away 12. The perfect strategy works every time until you start using it 13. If your strategy seems to be working well, you havenât been using it long enough 14. The guy who owns the horse when it dies is the loser 15. When it comes to luck or skill, you canât beat luck 16. Pigs wonât eat $5 corn or $500 meal 17. When the plate of cookies goes around the table, donât forget to take a couple 18. When the market is wrong, it doesnât pay to be right 19. He who sells what isnât hisân, pays the price or goes to prison 20. Be right; sit tight 21. The best way to make a small fortune is to start with a large one 22. He who knows doesnât tell, he who tells doesnât know 23. When youâre hot youâre hot, when youâre not, take a vacation 24. The market knows more than the sum total of everyone in it 25. What everyone knows ainât worth knowing 26. The market will do whatever is necessary to fool the majority 27. Fundamentals are seldom what they appear to be 28. If you always do what youâve always done, youâll always get what youâve always got 29. The first five letters of âbrokerâ spell âbrokeâ 30. The market punishes those who make mistakes Compiled from years of experience by Roy L. Smith "
LOL. Probably the most common words I heard spoken in the pit were "Hey, you're standing in my spot." Not much trading wisdom there but then again, not too many of those guys were geniuses. There's the ever-popular "You'll never go broke taking a profit" and "Cut your losses short, let your profits run." Note that they contradict each other. Once in the pit a calendar spread just kept getting more and more expensive until it was so out of line, it was just ridiculous. We were all short it to the gills. One guy from another pit came along, looked at his sheets, shook his head and said "If it weren't so expensive, I'd sell it." That became a classic.
"got a hunch? buy a bunch" or one of my all time favoirtes sung to the tune of "If you're happy and you know it" When you dont know what to do, do a spread When you dont know what to do, do a spread When you dont know what to do and you got on effen clue, When you dont know what to do, do a spread
Ahh the old spot wars. I remember the arguments about when you got to the pit 2 hours before the opening and sat in your spot but got up to take a leak and left a trading card there an argument would erupt when you returned to find some 25 up guy standing there. There was actually a fist fight which resulted in a big paying law suit in Philly once. Two hours before the opening in the SOX index pit wrestling and punching and ultimately a cheap shot where one guy was tossed into a steel pillar and wacked his head.
A couple of other classics... When a floor broker is working a shitty offer and someone in the pit would shout.. "Take.... me out to the ball game" Floor broker working a shitty order which he keeps quoting and then shows 1 tick better bid or offer and everyone yells "tempting"