While Babe Ruth was not a trader he was the greatest home run hitter to ever play baseball for many, many years until Hank Aaron finally beat his record. I think it is appropriate to look at Babe Ruth quotes for trading because many of the most profitable traders of all time were sluggers swinging for home runs in the stock market. Multi-Millionaire traders like Dan Zanger, Nicolas Darvas, William O’Neil, Chris Camillo, and Jesse Livermore all owed their fortunes to the big, big, wins that occurred in monster stocks during bull markets. Here are some quotes from Babe Ruth that I think describe these traders momentum and trend following styles.
“Never let the fear of striking out keep you from coming up to bat. -Babe Ruth
Rich traders are not afraid to put their trading capital down on a good bet that a strong trend will continue. Losing whole accounts did not stop these traders, they never stopped learning and kept coming back to the markets until they made it, and they all made it BIG.
“If I’d tried for them dinky singles I could’ve batted around six hundred.” -Babe Ruth
These rich traders were not going for winning percentage, they did not care about having an 80% win rate in their trading. What they wanted were HUGE winners that made up for all the small losses and made them rich, really rich.
“Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.” -Babe Ruth
These wealthy traders all realized that losses were just part of the trading game, they thought of stop losses as insurance, tuition, or just the nature of the business.
“Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” -Babe Ruth
Their mind set was that each losing trade was taking them closer to the BIG winners. Their trading record looked like this: small loss, small loss, small win, small loss, big win, small loss, HUGE WIN, small loss, HUGE WIN, small loss, small loss. The huge wins are the part of the system that makes it hugely profitable becasue they pay for all the smalls and create the huge profits.
“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” -Babe Ruth
The mind set of these rich trend traders and many of the other rich traders is that they have made up their minds to be successful traders, this is what they were, they had no plan B. Once their mind was set on this path all the other questions of method, system, and trading capital were just details on their paths to ultimate success. The Holy Grail of trading is not a particular system, it is really perseverance, passion, focus, diligence, and hard work. These are the things that win every time, in the long run.
