Stock Market Wizards: Mark Minervini

• The fruits of your success will be in direct ratio to the honesty and sincerity of your own effort in keeping your own records, doing your own thinking, and reaching your own conclusions.
• Being wrong is acceptable, but staying wrong is totally unacceptable. Being wrong isn't a choice, but staying wrong is.
• Understand that you will always make mistakes. The only way to prevent mistakes from turning into disasters is to accept losses while they are small and then move on
• Concentrate on mastering one style that suits your personality, which is a lifetime process. Most people just cannot weather the learning curve. As soon as it gets difficult, and their approach isn't working up to their expectations, they being to look for something else. As a result, they become slightly efficient in many areas without ever becoming very good in any single methodology.
• You need to have a plan for every contingency... ... ... The most important contingency plan is the one that will limit your loss if you are wrong. Beyond that, you need a plan to get back into the trade if you're stopped out.
• Many amateur investors get sloppy after gains because they fall into the trap of thinking of their winnings as the "market's money," and in no time, the market takes it back. It's your money as long as you protect it.
• You don't have to make all-or-nothing decisions. If a stock is up and you're unsure what to do, there's nothing wrong with taking profits on part of it.
• Don't let your ego get in the way
• Don't allow yourself to be influenced by what other people think
• Many people approach investing too casually. They treat investing as a hobby instead of like a business; hobbies cost money.
• None of this is a black box. You have all these people trying to come up with formulas to bea the market. The market is not a science. The science may help increase the probabilities, but to excel you need to master the art of trading