The Psychology of Speculation by Henry Howard Harper

It may be set down as an axiomatic truth that no one can learn the art / of making money in the stock market by reading statistics, charts, / precedents, theoretical disquisitions and instructions. Of course it is / not needful, nor would it be any more practicable than it is necessary, / to set forth any fixed rules or maxims governing one's procedure in / any other line of business or any other profession, since no one / could use them advantageously without the requisite qualifications, / such as adaptability, shrewdness and practice. Hundreds of different / combinations of cards are laid out in books of instructions on auction / bridge, with explicit directions as to how to bid and play the hands, / yet nobody ever heard of a good bridge player being made solely from / book instruction. One reason is that there are actually millions of / combinations of cards. Also in stock trading there is an indefinite / number of needful "don'ts" which the most resourceful person can / neither contemplate nor anticipate. Every stock market cycle shatters / some precedent; every era produces new phenomena. Everyone who has ever / studied a book of instructions on how to play golf knows how impossible / it is to take up any golf club and make it perform according to / schedule.

A firm stance, feet well apart, body under full control, the / right knee stiff, the left arm almost rigid as it follows the right in / a low backward swing; and most important of all, the eye firmly fixed / on the ball, while the club whips through the air, and after lifting / the ball, follows on through, carrying both arms forward to their / full length, and many other things which I never could do, and cannot / now recall; all these directions the would-be player will learn as he / knows his A, B, C's; but in his intense eagerness to swat the ball he / disregards most, or all, of the stated essentials, and at the moment / of impact, while his club is ploughing up the sod two or three inches / behind the ball, his eyes are cast heavenward in fervent anticipation / of watching its flight. Likewise the speculator figures his profits / long before they materialize. The most important thing in golf, and the / hardest thing to learn, is to keep the eye on the ball while in the / act of hitting it; and the hardest thing to learn in stock trading is / to keep the eye _off_ the market, hold firmly and patiently to good / resolutions, _and not try to get rich too quickly_. Both look to be / easy, but --