My father was a senior officer with General Patton. Indeed, German General Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel (1891–1944), who was famous in his lifetime as a brilliant strategist, including among his adversaries. His tactical prowess and decency in treating Allied prisoners earned him the respect of opponents. While Rommel never wrote a book, Panzer Greift, which consisted of papers and notes that were assembled in 1953. He did write Infanterie greift an on infantry tactics. My father always said that Patton did want to read what Rommel wrote to get into the mindset of his opponent. My father was with Patton from North Africa to Berlin.
My father always taught me it is NOT what I think but what my opponent thinks. I have taken that advice my whole life.
For all the people criticizing Tucker for doing this interview, they are complete idiots to keep it gentlemanly. If you oppose anyone in war or trading, you better understand their motive and thinking process. When I was managing the estate of Aristotle Onassis, who had the largest holding of platinum, it took me months to get approval from the CFTC to trade. Having to prove the vast amount of physical metal in a vault, you had to know the thinking process of the dealers in order to even trade. If not – you are dead meat.
One time, I had perhaps a few thousand contracts of silver, and the computer projected it would crash. I told my floor broker, Emerald, the big local Oni Morrison, would do a flash bid for 1,000 lots. I told him not to offer anything and to wait for Oni Morrison to make a flash bid and instantly say DONE. He did, and then he flashed another 1,000 bid – DONE! Then, one more time, Oni said 1,000, and one more time, my broker said DONE! Then Silver crashed, and I was out. If you do not know HOW your opponent acts, you cannot trade. Even the silver manipulation I took on the entire club because I knew how they would act and won.
