From Psychology of the Stock Market by GC Selden, published in 1912 The effort to reduce the science of speculation and investment to an impossible definitiveness or an ideal simplicity is, I believe, responsible for many failures … the market student of a mathematical turn of mind is always seeking a rule or a set of rules — a "sure thing", as traders put it. [But while] scientific methods may be applied to any line of business, from stocks to chickens, this is a very different thing from trying to reduce the fluctuations of the stock market to a basis of mathematical certainty … most of the practical suggestions which can be offered are necessarily of a somewhat negative character. We can point out the errors to be avoided much more successfully than we can lay out a course of positive action. But the following summary may be useful for the active trader: Your main purpose must be to keep your mind clear … Hence, do not act hastily on apparently sensational information; do not tra...
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