Quotes

Too many investors fail to follow some simple, time-tested tenets that improve the odds of achieving success and, at the same time, reduce the anxiety naturally associated with an uncertain undertaking.

There are no perfect one-decision answers to investment success.

As all of us were taught, but most of us have long since forgotten, economic change occurs at the margin, where the action takes place.

Most investors tend to cling to the course to which they are currently committed, especially at turning points.

All investment decision-making systems are a compromise.

It is more important to know what will happen than when it will happen, because it is impossible to forecast with precision the timing of critical events.

The thing about buying depressed stocks is that you really have three strings to your bow: 1) earnings will improve and the stocks will go up; 2) someone will come in and buy control of the company; or 3) the company will start buying its own stock and ask for tenders.

If a stock goes up 30 or 40 times in ten years, it has to have been grossly underpriced to begin with.

What these companies do is try to put the best spin or face on their situation. Rarely will managements tell you how bad things are.

Almost every value trap is the result of people extrapolating past returns on capital and past valuations onto a different situation today.

The more things people worry about the better for an investor, because those worries are already instantiated in the overall market.

Nearly every mistake I’ve made has been because I picked the wrong people, not the wrong idea.