Peter L. Brandt has been a full time professional commodity and foreign exchange trader for over thirty years. He has worked as a broker to large industrial clients, traded for his own account, and was one of the early pioneers in the commodity hedge fund arena. Along the way, Brandt published a highly regarded newsletter called The Factor. He is primarily devoted to trading proprietary capital in commodity and forex markets. You can follow him on Twitter @PeterLBrandt. He wrote the book ‘Diary of a Professional Commodity Trader: Lessons from 21 Weeks of Real Trading.’
Here are ten of his best quotes where he shares his experience and trading wisdom:
“I have made my living since 1975 trading futures markets using charts My conclusion on chart trading:
1. Charts do NOT predict prices
2. Most chart patterns fail
3. Charts simply tell us where a market has been
4. The only value in charts is for trade/risk management” – Peter L. Brandt
“Make a mistake, analyze the mistake, understand the mistake, then get over it and focus on the next trade in the ongoing series of trades.” -Peter L. Brandt
“Gamblers obsess with big potential upside windfall profits. Intelligent speculators obsess with managing downside risk.” – Peter L. Brandt
“Realities of a trader:
1. Losing money makes us feel inadequate
2. Making money (but never enough) makes us feel inadequate
3. Being on the sidelines makes us feel inadequate.
A purpose of the market is to make us feel inadequate Welcome to the life I’ve lived for 45 years.” – Peter L. Brandt
“Your unrealized open profits are NOT yours unrealized profits belong to the pot, not to you The only thing that counts is closed trade profits This is why I track my trading based on sequential close trades.” – Peter L. Brandt
“Having an opinion on a market is cheap and easy. Establishing and holding a profitable position to back up an opinion — this is where trading gets tricky.” – Peter L. Brandt
“What’s your priority in a trade? For me, it is more important to know where I will be wrong than to know if I will be right.” – Peter L. Brandt
“Amateur traders ask whether a market is going up or down. This is the wrong focus. We have no control over markets. None. Our only focus should be what orders do we need to have resting in the market. Trading is not glamorous. A trader is simply a clerical order enterer.” – Peter L. Brandt
“My advice to young traders who want long trading careers: Stop being obsessed with catching tops and bottoms and become willing to accept large chunks in the middle.” – Peter L. Brandt
“When you are right, your position will never be large enough When you are wrong, your position will always be too large.” – Peter L. Brandt
