Quotes 5

There is a very important difference between being a theoretical contrarian and dealing with it in practical terms. - Michael Steinhardt

It's not whether you're right or wrong that's important, but how much money you make when you're right and how much you lose when you're wrong. - George Soros

Basic economic theory suggests that demand falls as prices go up. But in the case of speculative markets, the opposite seems to be true. - Marc Faber

The speculative mania that was hyped in the net rivaled any previous bubble - including the one in 1620 with tulips. It separated a heck of a lot of people from their capital. And it did so permanently. It wasn't just a matter of share prices deviating from value, but rather, in many cases of share prices disappearing and not reappearing. - Mason Hawkins

Chief executives seem no more able to resist their biological urge to merge than dogs can resist chasing rabbits. - Philip Coggan

Technology companies should be valued at a discount to the shares of companies like Disney and Coca-Cola, which have long term earnings. - Bill Gates

Many mergers turn out to be monumental stinkers, with the acquired company sold after an enormous write-off. Putting two drunks together doesn't make a stable person. - Gary Hamel

Having a financial adviser enables the investor to carry a psychological call option. If the investment decision turns out well, the investor takes the credit, and if it turns out badly, the regret can be lowered by blaming the adviser. - Hersh Shefrin

The only time I really ever lost money was when I broke my own rules. - Jesse Livermore

Were there a direct relationship between technological innovation and investment results, then equity returns in the first half of the 19th century should have been spectacular. Alas, they were not. History shows that it is precisely the promise of unlimited technological progress that proves most corrosive to equity returns. - William Berstein

If you're forecasting something, don't promise a specific date. That way, if the date passes, you're not wrong. This has been great advice for me. - Anny Joseph Cohen

You do better to make a few large bets and sit back and wait . . . there are huge mathematical advantages to doing nothing. - Charlie Munger

I used to think if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the President or the Pope or a .400 baseball hitter, but now I want to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody. - James Carville

I have noticed that everyone who ever told me that the markets are efficient is poor. - Larry Hite

Great stocks are extremely hard to find. If they weren't, then everyone would own them. - Philip A. Fisher

The person who knows that he doesn't know much, knows much. - Marc Faber

Diversification is a hedge for ignorance. I think you are much better off owning a few stocks and knowing a great deal about them. - William J. O'Neil

When a chief executive officer is encouraged by his advisors to make deals, he responds much as would a teenager boy who is encouraged by his father to have a normal sex life. It's not a push he needs. - Warren Buffett

I like buying companies that can be run by monkeys - because one day they will be. - Peter Lynch

There are old traders around and bold traders around, but there are no old, bold traders around. - Bob Dinda

One of the trends we have found is that the fund managers that tend to perform the best over time are the ones that tend to spend the least amount of time debating which way the market is heading. - Don Phillips

Conventional wisdom only results in conventional returns. - Mario Gabelli

One of the dumbest things you can do with money is spend it. - Robert Wilson

Buy the stocks of small companies below their economic value, let the companies grow, and resell them as proven successes at full economic value. Individuals often sell small companies below their economic value and buy mature companies at full value, thus providing the other side for our trades. - Ralph Wanger

My approach works not by making valid predictions but by allowing me to correct false ones. - George Soros

The more the theory of efficient markets is believed, the less efficient the markets become. - George Soros

Remember, the price that people agree to in the pit is not the price that people think is going to exist in the future. It's the price that both sides vehemently agree won't be there. - Jeffrey Silverman

When you're feeling manic, you've got to develop the discipline to recognize the internal signs and take the money. And when you're feeling depressed, you've got to avoid jumping out the basement window and buy the market. - Jeffrey Silverman

I think appreciating risk, being aware of it and respecting it, makes you a good trader. It teaches you to be disciplined. Discipline allows you to trade effectively. You can take your ego out of it. You can go wrong 60, 70 percent of the time and still make a lot of money. If you ignore the discipline of managing risk, you have to be right 80 percent of the time or more, and I don't know anyone who's that good. - Larry Rosenberg

Bond investors are the vampires of the investment world. They love decay, recession - anything that leads to low inflation and the protection of the real value of their loans. - Bill Gross