Ed Seykota top 6 Quotes.

Start of a long weekend, what can be better than starting it with a blog on some potent life changing quotes from my favorite trader Ed Seykota.

I am a FAN of Seykota because his life lessons are not limited or confined to the “STOCK MARKET”. The wisdom and depth from where he speaks is universal and takes you into a journey of SELF Discovery.

Although his FAQ site is full of wisdom, find below my TOP 6.

1 Win or lose, everyone gets what they want from markets. Some people seem to like to lose, so they win by losing money.

This one has a deep meaning. Ofcourse, on surface no body “wants” to lose money. But Ed is talking about your sub conscious mind. Your bottled up, unexpressed feelings are your actual trading system. You know why people with bad childhood (aggressive parents) end up marrying (choosing aggressive, abusive spouses). Those unexpressed feelings find newer and newer characters to manifest the same drama.

2 If you can’t measure it, you cannot control it. Things you measure, tend to improve.

There was a research paper published showing people who measured their blood sugar regularly had a much better HBA1C score than those who didn’t. Just the awareness and regular measurement and record creates a sense of accountability. Traders who don’t keep record of their positions and trades are degenerate gamblers.

3. A losing trader can do little to transform himself into a winning trader. A losing trader is not going to want to transform. That’s the kind of thing winning traders do.

Again, this is much deeper than it appears. Ed is talking about years and years of conditioning and upbringing. This reminds me of a conversation my wife was having with one of her friends (who was a victim of marital abuse). While she was advising her to do this and do that and call the cops and be aware of her human rights, both of us knew deep down that you cannot change a person, cannot delete years and years of upbringing and conditioning, a set-cast by giving a motivational speech over the phone.

4 I don’t predict a non existing future.

As a trend following trader, we live in the moment of NOW. All we know is that right now the trend is up and we are long. We intend to stay long as long as the trend remains up. There is NO FUTURE, when in future, the trend would reverse, it would reverse in that moment of NOW.

You can live your life with the same motto. All your actions are in the NOW, whether they will fructify or not is (non existing future) a) not in your hands and b) not your concern.

5. Purpose of life is to find and fund your vocation, regardless of the outcome.

100s of books and thousands of blogs have been written on this subject. “What is my purpose in life”.

It can ALL be summed up in just 01 simple line. Find your vocation, fund it and be at it for the rest of your life. If it helps the fellow human beings, you are on a right track.

A lot of people would rather understand the market than make money.

This is a dig at academics and macro bullshitters. These set of people are there in every industry. They are Eloquent speakers with unparalleled logic and reasoning but one look at their P&L statement and the hypocrisy cannot be veiled and concealed.

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