very soon will find outthe SWISS AXIOMScommandments of...

very soon will find out
the SWISS AXIOMS
commandments of trading

THE ZURICH AXIOMS

Axiom I - on risk

Risk enough to be really worried about the outcome

Play for meaningful stakes; diversification is for wimps

Axiom II - on greed

■ Always take your profit too soon

Control your greed; don't let it control you

Axiom III - on hope

■ When the ship starts to sink, don't pray. Jump

What makes a top-rate poker player - knowing when to fold

Axiom IV - on forecasts

■ Distrust anyone who claims to know the future

And don't let your own reasonable expectations of the future harden into dogmatic certainty

Axiom V - on patterns

■ Don't see order where it does not exist

Most of the time you're dealing with chaos, but that's not dangerous until it seems to look orderly

Axiom VI - on mobility

■ Stay light on your feet

Don't get locked into a way of thinking about investments and don't stick with a situation because you think it 'owes' you something

Axiom VII - on intuition

■ Trust a hunch if you can explain it

And you can explain it if it's consistent with the conclusions you can draw from an area that you have studied in depth

Axiom VIII - on religion and the occult

■ Don't imagine that providence will make you rich

After all, if astrology worked, all astrologers would be rich

Axiom IX - on optimism and pessimism

■ Learn the difference between confidence and optimism

If you are confident, you know how to handle the worst; if you're just optimistic, you don't

Axiom X - on consensus

■ Arrive at your own conclusions

Be deeply sceptical of majority opinion and never follow what look like speculative fads

Axiom XI - on stubbornness

■ Leave stubbornness to others

If a speculation does not succeed first time, forget it. And never average down a losing situation

Axiom XII - on planning

■ Forget long-range planning

All speculative media will change in ways that you cannot imagine