The Heretics of Finance: Conversations with Leading Practitioners of Technical Analysis

Chapter 18. The Challenge of Emotions

	No one assessing or trading markets is unemotional about it. This job is not like building cars. It's like trying to outwit a pack of murderous inmates in an insane asylum. You can't do it calmly because you don't know what they're capable of, and they don't have to use reason.
	--R. Prechter

How did you feel when you first lost a lot of money? Did it become easier to lose as you became more experienced?

ACAMPORA: Throughout my professional life on the Street, I haven't committed much personal money to my stock ideas. I knew that if I became too involved with my own money and my own ideas, I would lose objectivity. So I divorced myself from it. Instead, I would put my money in a fund, and I would adjust the fund periodically. I can't say I lost a lot of money. I didn't get out of everything in the crash of 2000, 2001, 2002. So I lost some money, but it wasn't heck of a lot.

I learned a lot from my market calls, because I feel just as concerned if I'm wrong and someone else's money is lost as I would if it were my own money. In fact, I feel worse. For example, the crash of 1987 was very hard for me. I saw something coming, but I did not foresee the magnitude of what happened. I took a lot of people down with me, and people were angry. In hindsight, everybody said, "Who could have expected it?" But there were some technicians who got out. I didn't ...