Richard D. Wyckoff

1. How I Trade and Invest in Stocks and Bonds (1922), full text on the Internet Archive — book or paper, 1922
   The book is in the public domain; the full text was downloaded and the quoted passages were checked in it.

• FilterWork with the trend of the market: he says chances of success are three or four times what they would be if you buck the trend.
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• FilterTrade active stocks and do not tie capital up in sluggish ones.“In trading, keep on moving stocks!”
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• FilterA trader should be ready and willing to sell short as readily as buy for a long position.
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• EntryWorked example (U.S. Steel): when the stock looked ready for a sharp move, buy (or sell) 300 shares with a three-point protective stop.
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• EntryAdd another hundred shares for every two points the stock moves in your favour, protecting each new lot with its own three-point stop; stop adding after roughly a ten-point move (about 800 shares).
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• StopLimit risk almost always: make it a habit to place a two- or three-point stop behind any trade made to profit from fluctuations. He notes that Harriman thought three-eighths of a point to one point was enough, but Harriman started as a floor trader.
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• ExitTake profit on a further advance or raise the stop so that at least a solid profit is locked in.
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• ExitHe quotes a speculator he knew who threw a position out at once if it fell two or three points after he bought, on the ground that his first judgement was wrong.
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• Size and riskUse only a small part of capital for trading, not over five or ten per cent of his “loose capital”, so that no unexpected event can cripple him.
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• DisciplineEither make a business of trading or do not try to be a trader: training, not an occasional dab.
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Often attributed to this trader, but not found in the sources above. Not listed as his or her rules.

• The “Composite Man”, the five-step method and the spring/upthrust schematics associated with the name Wyckoff come from his later courses and from followers; they are not in this book text and are not listed as rules here.

Numbers are points on 1920s share prices (a stop of two or three points was a modest fraction of a share price then). The book gives no record of results.