You will find in actual practice that if you trade as I have indicated any important piece of news given out between the closing of one market and the opening of another is usually in harmony with the line of least resistance. _The trend has been established before the news is published, and in bull markets bear items are ignored and bull news exaggerated, and vice versa._ Before the war broke out the market was in a very weak condition. There came the proclamation of Germany’s submarine policy. I was short one hundred and fifty thousand shares of stock, not because I knew the news was coming, but because I was going along the line of least resistance. What happened came out of a clear sky, as far as my play was concerned. Of course I took advantage of the situation and I covered my shorts that day. It sounds very easy to say that all you have to do is to watch the tape, establish your resistance points and be ready to trade along the line of least resistance as soon as you have determined it. _But in actual practice a man has to guard against many things, and most of all against himself_--that is, against human nature. That is the reason why I say that the man who is right always has two forces working in his favor--_basic conditions and the men who are wrong_. _In a bull market bear factors are ignored._ That is human nature, and yet human beings profess astonishment at it. People will tell you that the wheat crop has gone to pot because there has been bad weather in one or two sections and some farmers have been ruined. When the entire crop is gathered and all the farmers in all the wheat-growing sections begin to take their wheat to the elevators the bulls are surprised at the smallness of the damage. They discover that they merely have helped the bears. When a man makes his play in a commodity market he must not permit himself set opinions. He must have an open mind and flexibility. _It is not wise to disregard the message of the tape, no matter what your opinion of crop conditions or of the probable demand may be._ I recall how I missed a big play just by trying to anticipate the starting signal. I felt so sure of conditions that I thought it was not necessary to wait for the line of least resistance to define itself. I even thought I might help it arrive, because it looked as if it merely needed a little assistance. I was very bullish on cotton. It was hanging around twelve cents, running up and down within a moderate range. It was in one of those in-between places and I could see it. I knew I really ought to wait. But I got to thinking that if I gave it a little push it would go beyond the upper resistance point.