Doug Kass: Dennis Gartman's 18 Rules of TradingBy DOUG KASS
1. NEVER, EVER ADD TO A LOSING POSITION... NOT EVER!: Adding to losing trades eventually leads to ruin. All great market humiliations are first preceded by a person... or a group... doing so such as the Nobel Laureates of Long Term Capital Management or Nick Leeson of Barings or Sam Bankman-Fried!
2. TRADE LIKE A MERCENARY: As investors we are to fight on the winning side of the trade, not on the side of the trade we believe to be economically correct. We are pragmatists first, last and always.
3. MENTAL CAPITAL IS EQUAL TO REAL CAPITAL: Capital comes in two types: mental and real. Losing trades diminishes one's finite, measurable real capital AND one's infinite and immeasurable mental capital... and does so always and everywhere.
4. WE ARE NOT IN THE BUSINESS OF BUYING LOW AND SELLING HIGH: We are in the business of buying high and selling higher, or of selling low and buying lower. Strength begets strength; weakness begets weakness.
5. IN BULL MARKETS, ONE MUST TRY ONLY TO BE LONG OR NEUTRAL: The corollary is that in bear markets one must only be short or neutral. There are exceptions, but they are rare.
6. "MARKETS CAN REMAIN ILLOGICAL FAR LONGER THAN YOU OR I CAN REMAIN SOLVENT": Either Lord Keynes or my friend and mentor, Dr. A. Gary Shilling, said this many years ago and they were...and still are...right, for illogic does often reign, despite what the efficient market academics would have us believe. Witness FTX!
7. BUY THAT WHICH SHOWS GREAT STRENGTH; SELL THAT WHICH SHOWS GREAT WEAKNESS: Metaphorically, the wettest paper sack breaks most easily and the strongest winds carry ships the farthest and the fastest.
8. THINK LIKE A FUNDAMENTALIST; TRADE LIKE A TECHNICIAN: Be bullish when the technicals and fundamentals, as you understand them, run bullishly in tandem. Be bearish when they don't.
9. TRADING RUNS IN CYCLES: In the "Good Times" even one's errors are profitable; in the inevitable "Bad Times" even the best researched trades fail. This is the nature of trading. Accept this and move on.
10. KEEP THINGS SIMPLE: Complication is confusing; simplicity breeds elegance and profitability.
11. UNDERSTANDING PSYCHOLOGY IS OFT TIMES MORE IMPORTANT THAN UNDERSTANDING ECONOMICS: Or more simply put, "When they're cryin' you should be buyin' and when they're yellin' you should be sellin'!" But golly, that is difficult!
12. REMEMBER, THERE IS NEVER JUST ONE COCKROACH: Bad news seems always to follow with more bad news and always with an ever worsening impact. Again, witness FTX!
13. BE PATIENT WITH WINNING TRADES; BE ENORMOUSLY IMPATIENT WITH LOSERS: The older I get the more small losses I willingly take.
14. DO MORE OF THAT WHICH IS WORKING AND DO LESS OF THAT WHICH IS NOT: This works in life as well as trading. If there is a "secret" to trading... and to life... this is it!
15. CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELF: Need I really say more? Errors only get worse.
16. SOMEONE ALWAYS HAS A BIGGER JUNK YARD DOG: No matter how much "work" I do on a trade, someone knows more and is more prepared than am I... and has more capital!
17. WHEN THE FACTS CHANGE, CHANGE! Lord Keynes... again... once said that "When the facts change, I change; What do you do, Sir?" When the technicals or the fundamentals of a position change, change your position, or at least reduce your exposure.
18. ALL RULES ARE MEANT TO BE BROKEN: But they are to be broken only rarely and true genius comes with knowing when, where and why!
Source: The Street
https://realmoney.thestreet.com/investi ... %2BTrading
It's all about "how much you made when you were right" & "how little you lost when you were wrong"