50 Years of Trading: Lessons You Won’t Find in Any Textbook

Brandt is a successful trader who was featured in the book Unknown Market Wizards, part of Jack Schwager’s iconic series. Brandt has been trading since 1976, but his path was not always smooth. He initially failed, then enjoyed a decade of remarkable success, left trading for 11 years, and eventually returned for another strong run.

Below is a collection of rules and lessons drawn from over 50 years of real trading experience. Each one was earned through losses, gains, mistakes, and personal insight. These are not theoretical tips – they are the result of decades of work and pain.

1. A trading plan is not complete unless it includes contingencies for all known possibilities.
2. The plan is incomplete if it doesn’t cut losing trades quickly and let winning trades run.
3. I may think I know where the market is heading in the short term, but in reality, I have no idea.
4. The trades I most want to believe in are often the ones I least want to hold.
5. A trading plan is useless unless you repeatedly pull the trigger – if you can’t, the problem is with your head/heart/gut, not the plan.
6. There are old traders and there are bold traders, but there are very few old, bold traders.
7. Forget being a consistent big winner until you learn to excel at losing.
8. It’s best not to look at your account balance during a truly profitable run.
9. Unrealized profits don’t belong to me – except for tax filing, I don’t track them.
10. 10X, 20X crypto moves are once-in-a-lifetime events. Young traders shouldn’t expect repeat performances.
11. Trading rules – especially indicator-based ones – cannot be optimized. Sorry.
12. Trading should be treated as a marathon, never a sprint.
13. If you have less than five years of trading experience, your worst drawdown has not yet happened.

Many of these lessons aren’t just about trading – they speak to character, psychology, and discipline. These are skills beyond the charts, but they’re crucial for long-term success.