《股票作手回忆录·第三章·初到纽约·对赌行的赢法为何失灵》第2节
A man must believe in himself and his judgment if he expects to make a living at this game. That is why I don’t believe in tips. If I buy stocks on Smith’s tip I must sell those same stocks on Smith’s tip. I am depending on him. Suppose Smith is away on a holiday when the selling time comes around? No, sir, nobody can make big money on what someone else tells him to do. I know from experience that nobody can give me a tip or a series of tips that will make more money for me than my own judgment. It took me five years to learn to play the game intelligently enough to make big money when I was right. I didn’t have as many interesting experiences as you might imagine. I mean, the process of learning how to speculate does not seem very dramatic at this distance. I went broke several times, and that is never pleasant, but the way I lost money is the way everybody loses money who loses money in Wall Street. Speculation is a hard and trying business, and a speculator must be on the job all the time or he’ll soon have no job to be on.
注释摘要
这段自白诞生于一个股市消息漫天乱飞的时代。1900年代初的华尔街，电报线把行情纸带送进每一间经纪行，也把各种“内幕消息”和“小道建议”像灰尘一样撒遍交易大厅。所谓的 “tip” 并非今天有板有眼的投资分析，它更接近熟人之间压低嗓音传过来的一句话：“史密斯说这只票要涨”，而听者往往连史密斯是谁都未必清楚。在那个信息不对称极为严重的市场里，大户操纵、联手坐庄是…