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Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes!
By Singapore Man of Leisure  •  September 8, 2015
In the American Revolutionary war, Colonel William Prescott commanded the American rebel forces in the Battle of Bunker Hill against the British forces. Low on ammunition, William Prescott gave the below (now famous) order to his men: "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes!" Remember, in the 18th century, they were using muskets - not rifles. Muskets are smooth bore firearms; the shorter the range its fired at an enemy, the more accurate and lethal the shot would be.
This is easier said than done. Imagine the enemy marching towards you. You can see them clearly. You naturally instinct is to panic and fire. If you miss, imagine the horror while you are furiously re-loading your firearm, the enemy now has closed even nearer to you and is now taking aim at you... A volley before the bayonet charge. Mama! By the way, once the ammunition ran out, the Americans retreated. Technically, it was a "victory" for the British, but the British sustained much heavier deaths and wounded than the American side. Morale is higher on the American side. Investing and Trading Isn't this what we agonise and go through as investors and traders everyday? Fire too early, we get stopped-out or suffer the gut-wrenching disgust with ourselves seeing red all over our portfolios. Fire too late, we find ourselves standing at the platform looking like idiots as the train peals away without us... Do we conserve our resources or throw everything (and the kitchen sink) at the first sign of an opportunity? When low on resources, do we retreat to live and fight another day? Or do we stand our ground come what may? Ego versus objective? For those of us who have been in the markets for sometime, we know how's it like to "win" the battle but lost the war... And weren't there times we were glad and morale super high when we have "retreated" from the markets?
Singapore Man of Leisure (welcome to my blog; just google it!
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By Singapore Man of Leisure
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