The Zurich Axioms: The rules of risk and reward used by generations of Swiss bankers

by Gunther Max

It refers to the need to cash out before a set of winning events has reached its peak. Don’t ever try to squeeze the last possible dollar from a set. It seldom works. Don’t worry about the possibility that the set still has a long way to go – the possibility of regret. Don’t fear regret. Since you can’t see the peak, you must assume it is close rather than far. Take your profit and get out. It is like climbing a mountain on a black, foggy night. The visibility is zero. Up above you and ahead of you somewhere is the peak, and on the other side is a sheer drop to disaster. You want to climb as high as you can. Ideally, you would like to reach the peak and stop exactly there. But you know ‘ideally’ doesn’t happen often in real life, and you aren’t naive enough to think it is going to happen now. So the only sensible course is to stop climbing when you have reached what you consider a good height. Stop short of the peak. Stop too soon.