“Tips are for waiters” is a stock market adage that dates to at least 1989. The adage holds that one should rely on business fundamentals, not stock tips. If someone is on the inside providing a tip, that’s illegal. Many “tips” are really promotions by someone who wants to sell something.
 
American financial author and television personality Jim Cramer made “Tips Are for Waiters” his fifth commandment for trading.
 
   
Google Books
Penny Stocks:
How to Profit with Low-Priced Stocks
By Jerome M. Wenger and George W. Kromer
Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Tab Books
1989
Pg. 34:
I cannot advise anyone to purchase stock on rumors. The preponderance of money lost by individuals that buy securities purely on rumor is astounding. Tips are for waiters. Basic business fundamentals are for investors.
 
GOogle Groups: misc.invest.futures
Tips are for Waiters
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5/20/97
Forget stock market tips. Once you learn some decent Guerrilla Investing techniques, you will have the good judgment not to rely on unreliable information. A tip on the stock market is a recommendation from a stranger who may or may not have the facts. Take the tip and study the company. Only then should you make a decision. Don’t buy or sell based on third party tips.
James Book
http://www2.stockup.com
 
Google Books
The Market Is Always Right
By Thomas McCafferty
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
2003
Pg. 21:
TIPS ARE FOR WAITERS, NOT TRADERS One of the most important keys to psychological health and trading success is that you must always take responsibility for your own trading decisions. Ignore tipsters.
   
TheStreet
Commandment No. 5: Tips Are for Waiters
BY Jim Cramer| 04/13/05 - 08:49 AM EDT
(...)
“What does it mean, Jim?” they ask. Actually, it means that human nature and securities are a potent and devastating mix. People can whisper in your ear that Nokia (NOK_) is going to buy Research In Motion (RIMM), and you believe, you genuinely believe, because you want the big score. You know that the best moves are takeovers and you are convinced that if you can catch one, it will make up for all the bum steers and bad bets you have made. Tips are winning lottery tickets in most people’s eyes.
 
That’s the reason I’ve had to default to a simple analogy, tips are for waiters, to remind myself how stupid tips really are. Does it occur to you, on hearing the tip, that if the person telling you that Nokia is going to buy RIM really knows that’s going to happen, the person is an insider and is breaking the law, and you could get in trouble, too? Does it occur to you that if the person isn’t an insider, he doesn’t know? There simply is no way a tip like that can work. Leave it for the waiter.
   
The Motley Fool
Foolish Book Review: “Reminiscences of a Stock Operator”
By Matt Koppenheffer
October 26, 2006
(...)
Tips are for waiters
In another bit of strategy that Reminiscences hits on numerous times throughout the book, Livingston comes out as a strong opponent of acting on tips to buy or sell a particular stock. Livingston plays a lone hand, and even points out on a number of occasions how trading opposite of tips can be the best way to make money off of them. However, most of the traders around him didn’t share that sentiment.
     
LOLFed.com
Tips Are For Waiters, Tweets Are For Rumors
June 20th, 2009 by alyx
Twitter, which is getting a crazy amount of buzz right now as the go-to place for capturing Iranian dissent (as well as Lindsay Lohan’s boobs and what Ashton Kutcher had for breakfast) is also getting quite a reputation for breaking market news as, or before, it happens. There are some sites that specialize in aggregating stock-related “tweets”, like StockTwits, but even without services like that, just knowing whom to follow can get you a piece of the uncensored action.
   
Twitter
Bjornn Borg
‏@bjornnborg
There is a saying: “Tips are for waiters”. http://bit.ly/6CmVfV Always do your own research.
5:31 AM - 7 Jan 2010
 
Twitter
Steve Burns
‏@SJosephBurns
“Tips are for waiters… useless for trading.” via @TradeLikeCasino Trading systems are for traders.
10:20 AM - 11 Jan 2014