My advice. Don't even try trading. Put the odds on your side and become an investor who buys businesses not a speculator who plays hot potato. And don't read a book written by a man who gained and then LOST fortunes and ended up killing himself because he was so poor and unhappy. He was young and ambitious once too. He couldn't be successful at trading over the very long term, and neither can you. Put all your ambition into something that you can succeed at. And, read books written by people who gained and kept their fortune and live a happy fulfilling life. I'd start with the Ben Grahams' book called the Intelligent Investor.
Ignore every response on this thread, and search the site on your own. There is plenty of gold to be mined here if you sift through the mountains of dung. Don't trade a dime of real money until you are profitable on a demo, or you will wind up broke and living in your Mom's basement like 90% of this site.
Funny you say that. Which one of those men became the richest man in the world by executing his hypothesis? And which man became poor and tragically ended his life because he couldn't execute his hypothesis?
I suggest that you STOP TRADING. If you take my advice, you will save yourself years of misery and sufferings and pains and losses and mental anxiety and traumatic experiences and many many other unpleasant things. If you ignore my suggestion and decide to trade, I hope you will come back in a few years and re-read my suggestion and take it. If you come back in a few years and re-read my suggestion and refuse to take it and continue to trade, I hope you will come back in another few years and re-re-read my suggestion and take it.
Buffett is the richest man of course. He know how to hypothesize and how to execute. He just doesn't show us the execution part. He also make bad investment decisions and he does cut his loss like a disciplined trader. (in what condition would he cut his loss? He would never tell anybody) Livermore did not have the securities analysis knowledge that Buffett has, since securities analysis was not widely known back then. In Livermore's time, stocks were considered speculative games, especially during the Great Depression. In addition, he was perceived to be a public enemy, which I am sure have affected his trading and life's decision that resulted in his tragic end. Overall, I believe we could learn a lot from both of them regardless of what happened to them. Amen
Read a lot, trade a little. And ignore the people who say you can't do it. There are people who make a living at this--yes, it can be done.
that is very incorrect. Most newbies biggest mistake, is listening to people who make it seem easily attainable, but themselves are not successful - like the many ET paper traders. Over 99% are going to fail or not do well longterm. One must learn a lot to make the profitable category. Better is LEARN from the people who say you can or cannot do it, but you still need to find your own path.
Buffet has of course made poor investment decisions, we all have. However, he is not a trader at all. He looks at stocks and sees what they really are, businesses. He doesn't "trade" them. He invests as if he is buying the company. He has told people how he "cuts his losses" plenty of times. He buys a wonderful business and sells it when it stops being wonderful. So if he buys a stock and the business deteriates or he discovers he made miscalculations and the stocks is actually not a great business or overvalued, then he sells. THATS his strategy to cut his losses. "Traders" can learn little from buffet. "Investors" can learn little if nothing from Livermore. All things being equal, if one individual tries to emulate buffet's techniques and one individual tries to emulate Livermore's "techniques", the Buffet copycat will do much better.