Alexander Elder’s Best Trading Quotes

Come into my trading room was Alexander Elder’s second book, after Trading for a Living.

Fun fact: Trading for a Living was the first ever trading book I bought, so I appreciate Elder’s guidance, even if it made zero sense to me twenty years ago…

So, in the book, he talks about the three M’s of trading, which are:

1. Mind
2. Method
3. Money

Getting your psychology right, having a good strategy, and ensuring good money management. I think it’s easy as a trader to get so sucked into one and forget the others. Always keep an eye on the whole business.

Anyway, I grabbed a few Elder quotes that I think are powerful and wanted to share with you.

“The goal of a successful trader is to make the best trades. Money is secondary.”

“You can be free. You can live and work anywhere in the world. You can be independent from routine and not answer to anybody.”

“The market is a battlefield. Make sure you are on the winning side.”

“An amateur thinks about how much money he can make. A professional thinks about how much money he could lose.”

“The difference between a successful trader and a loser is that the successful trader looks at the market through the prism of reality, while the loser chases the illusion of getting rich quick.”

“Every time you place a trade, make sure that risk is smaller than the potential reward.”

And finally my favourite:

“The three key components of trading are knowledge, courage, and discipline. When you truly accept that trading requires these three, you are on your way to winning.”

It’s not always easy to get the right blend…