Quotes

You always need to be cognizant of six sigma events that can have ugly impacts on your portfolio and account for the approximate probabilities.

Investing is not a discipline based on absolutes or precise mathematics. There simply aren't enough data points available to work out the exact odds.

When you look carefully at the economics of shorting, it makes no sense to take the bet. The lowest price a company’s stock can go to is zero, but there’s an unlimited upside. An unleveraged short position has a maximum payoff of 2:1.

With stocks, you have to worry about the market. With debt, I just have to understand the contract. If my analysis is right, I'll make money.

We think diversification is only a surrogate, and usually a poor surrogate, for knowledge, control, and price consciousness.

Good ideas and good products are a dime a dozen. Good execution and good management -- in a word, good people -- are rare.

Many business success stories are due at least in part to simple good luck.

The biggest problem in starting high-tech businesses is the shortage of superior managers. There is too much money chasing too few good managers.

Shorting is difficult. If you short, you are not only making an investment decision, you are making a market decision.

Diversification is a damn poor surrogate for knowledge.

We get protection by being price-conscious and by being extremely knowledgeable about our holdings.

We don’t get involved in all the analytical baggage of trying to figure out where a stock is going to sell. Just try to figure out what it’s worth. And I dare say all the really great investors do it the same way.