Quotes on Market Timing

Most people who have been really successful in the securities markets say the same thing -- that they're not smart enough to get into the market and out of it. So they tend to remain more or less in the market at all times.

It is just appalling the nerve strain people put themselves under trying to buy something today and sell it tomorrow. It's a small-win proposition. If you are a truly long-range investor, of which I am practically a vanishing breed, the profits are so tremendously greater.

I know plenty of guys who consider themselves to be long-term investors but who are still perfectly happy to trade in and out and back into their favorite stocks.

The prevailing view has been that the market will earn a high rate of return if the holding period is long enough, but entry point is what really matters.

Being extremely early is tantamount to being wrong, so contrarians are well advised to develop an understanding of the psychology of the sellers.

Being very early and being wrong look exactly the same 99% of the time.

People spend all this time trying to figure out "What time of the year should I make an investment? When should I invest?" And it's such a waste of time. It's so futile.

The only problem with market timing is getting the timing right.

People who exit the stock market to avoid a decline are odds-on favorites to miss the next rally.

If timing the market is such a great strategy, why haven't we seen the names of any market timers at the top of the Forbes list of richest Americans?

I am an exponent of the philosophy that the main objective of common stock investment should be pricing, not timing; and by pricing I mean the endeavor to buy securities at prices which are attractive, letting timing take care of itself.

People spend an unbelievable amount of mental energy trying to pick what the market's going to do, what time of the year to buy it. It's just not worth it.

Market timing is speculating and it rarely, if ever, pays off.

I don't believe all this nonsense about market timing. Just buy very good value and when the market is ready that value will be recognized.