When picking stocks, your objective is to buy the best stock with the best earning at exactly the right time and have the patience to hold it until you have been proven right or wrong. In a few cases you may have to allow 8 weeks after your first purchase before you conclude that a stock, which hasn't moved is a dull, faulty selection. This, of course, applies only if the stock did not reach your defensive, loss-cutting sell price first. Remember, your objective is not just to be right but to make big money when you are right.

"It is never your thinking that makes big money," said Livermore. "It's the sitting." Investors who can be right and sit tight are rare. It takes time for a stock to make a large gain.Therefore, patience is often important when trading stocks.