I asked ChatGPT which quote best captured the story of this week, and the answer it gave me was a quote from Jesse Livermore. It’s a bit long, but at its core, it boils everything down to just two words: emotion in investing.
The market doesn’t actively make anyone lose. It simply reflects supply and demand, and crowd psychology. Losses usually come from how participants react.
Many people correctly identify the market’s direction, yet collapse under short-term volatility. Panic selling, FOMO buying, increasing leverage to shorten the path to their goals — all of these erode long-term advantage.
As Livermore also famously said: “Sitting tight is how the big money is made.”