From the Psychology of the Stock Market by GC Selden, originally published in 1912: To make the greatest success it is necessary for the trader to forget entirely his own position in the market, his profits or losses, the relation of present prices to the point where he bought or sold, and to fix his thoughts upon the position of the market. If the market is going down the trader must sell, no matter whether he has a profit or a loss, whether he bought a year ago or two minutes ago. "Stop your losses; let your profits run" is a saying which appeals to the novice as the essence of wisdom. But the whole question is where to stop the losses and how far to let the profits run. In other words, what is the market going to do? If you can tell this your personal losses and profits will take care of themselves. The fact is that the more a trader allows his mind to dwell upon his own position in the market the more likely it is that his judgement will become warped so that his mind is blind t...
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