Richard D. Wykoff - Day Trader’s Bible

A friend of mine once said: “Joe and I used to trade in ten share lots together. He was an ordinary trader, just like me. We used to hang over the same ticker.” The speaker was, at the time he made the remark, still trading in ten-share lots, while I happened to know that Joe’s bank balance — his active working capital — amounted to $100,000, and that this represented but a part of the fortune built on his ability to understand the tapes’ secrets and interpret the language of the tape. Why was one of these men able to generate a fortune, while the other never acquired more than a few thousand dollars day trading?

Their chances were equal at the start of their pursuit as far as capital and opportunity. The profits were there, waiting to be won by either or both. The answer seems to be in the peculiar qualifications of the mind, highly potent in the successful trader, but not possessed by the other. There is, of course, an element of luck in every case, but pure luck could not be so sustained in Manning’s case as to carry him through day trading operations covering a term of years. Richard D. Wykoff - Day Trader’s Bible

We have the Wykoff book online.