Ed Seykota

"The markets are the same now as they were five or ten years ago because they keep changing-just like they did then."

"The elements of good trading are cutting losses, cutting losses, and cutting losses."

"Win or lose, everybody gets what they want out of the market. Some people seem to like to lose, so they win by losing money."

"I think that if people look deeply enough into their trading patterns, they find that, on balance, including all their goals, they are really getting what they want, even though they may not understand it or want to admit it."

"The trend is your friend except at the end where it bends."

"Charles Faulkner tells a story about Seykota's finely honed intuition when it comes to trading: I am reminded of an experience that Ed Seykota shared with a group. He said that when he looks at a market, that everyone else thinks has exhausted its up trend, that is often when he likes to get in. When I asked him how he made this determination, he said he just puts the chart on the other side of the room and if it looked like it was going up, then he would buy it... Of course this trade was seen through the eyes of someone with deep insight into the market behavior."

"If you want to know everything about the market, go to the beach. Push and pull your hands with the waves. Some are bigger waves, some are smaller. But if you try to push the wave out when it's coming in, it'll never happen. The market is always right."

"To avoid whipsaw losses, stop trading."

"Here's the essence of risk management: Risk no more than you can afford to lose, and also risk enough so that a win is meaningful. If there is no such amount, don't play."

"Pyramiding instructions appear on dollar bills. Add smaller and smaller amounts on the way up. Keep your eye open at the top."

"Markets are fundamentally volatile. No way around it. Your prolem is not in the math. There is no math to get you out of having to experience uncertainty."

"It can be very expensive to try to convince the markets you are right."

"Systems don't need to be changed. The trick is for a trader to develop a system with which he is compatible."

"I don't think traders can follow rules for very long unless they reflect their own trading style. Eventually, a breaking point is reached and the trader has to quit or change, or find a new set of rules he can follow. This seems to be part of the process of evolution and growth of a trader."

"Our work is not so much to treat or to cure feelings, as to accept and celebrate them. This is a critical difference. Fundamentalists figure things out and anticipate change. Trend followers join the trend of the moment. Fundamentalists try to solve their feelings. Trend followers join their feelings and observe them evolve and dis-solve. The feelings we accept and enjoy rarely interfere with trading. Trying to treat or cure feelings adds mass."

"When a feeling dissolves, it ceases to be your enemy and begins to be one of your allies."