were listening to the wrong people.
I didn't know how to decide which were the right or wrong people. I was a naive kid saying, "Here is a major
account that is buying a lot of stuff; the market should go up."
You really had no strategy, no plan, no system. You were just shooting from the hip.
That's right. Then over time, I started to get a grip on how to make money. As opposed to saying, "I have an
opinion and I want to express it in the market," I started asking, "How do I make money out of all this?"
What had you learned by that point?
I had learned that an opinion isn't worth that much. It is more important to listen to the market. I became a
reactive trader as opposed to an opinionated trader.
In 1980, one of my customers was Solomon Brothers. At the time, they were bearish on bonds from 65 to 80.
If I had listened to my big customers as I had done in 1979,1 would have thrown away money all over again.
What told you not to listen to your customers then?
The 1979 experience of losing money based on someone else's opinion—a sound opinion by intelligent people
that was just absolutely wrong.
Where were your successes coming from?
I learned how to read the tape and developed good instincts. We were such big players in bonds back then—
we, meaning my customers and myself—that the spots we picked to trade could virtually stop the market. We were
actually creating some of the support and resistance points. It didn't take that much to do it back then. I think there
was a streak of months when I hardly had any losing days.
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