At that time, we were seeing something completely new. I remember those markets. Even after prices had gone up only 10 percent of their eventual advance, historically, it seemed like a very large price move. What made you realize that prices could go so much further? At the time, I was politically right wing and that fit with being an inflation-alarmist. The theory that the evil
government was constantly debasing the currency provided the perfect perspective for trading the inflationary
markets of the mid-1970s.
It was the right theory for the right time. Right. The markets were so fertile for trading then that I could make plenty of mistakes and still do well.
Trading strictly on the long side? Yes. Everything was going up. Although I was doing very well, I did make one terrible mistake. During the
great soybean bull market, the one that went from $3.25 to nearly $12,1 impulsively took my profits and got out of
everything. I was trying to be fancy instead of staying with the trend. Ed Seykota never would get out of anything
unless the trend changed. So Ed was in, while I was out, and I watched in agony as soybeans went limit-up for twelve
consecutive days. I was real competitive, and every day I would come into the office knowing he was in and I was
out. I dreaded going to work, because I knew soybeans would be bid limit again and I couldn't get in.
Was this experience of not being in a runaway market as aggravating as actually losing money? Yes, more so. It was so aggravating that one day I felt I couldn't take it anymore and I tried tranquilizers to
dull the mental anguish. When that didn't work, somebody said, "Why don't you take something stronger, called
thorazine?"
I remember taking this thorazine at home and then getting on the subway to go to work. The subway doors
started to close as I was getting on and I started to fall down. At first, I didn't connect it with the thorazine. Anyway,
I wandered back home and just fell through the doorway—it was that strong. It knocked me out and I missed work
that day. That was the low point in my trading career.
