I'm not emotional about investments. Investing is something where you have to be purely rational and not let emotion affect your decision making - just the facts.
Interpretation
Investing requires rational decision-making without emotional influence.
In this quote, Bill Ackman emphasizes the importance of maintaining a logical and objective approach to investing. He argues that emotions can cloud judgment and lead to poor financial decisions; hence, investors should focus solely on factual information and analysis when making investment choices.
In practice
In a financial presentation discussing investment strategies, this quote can remind attendees to remain objective.
I think a very good system in a world with a lot of passive investors is one in which there are at least a few entrepreneurial investors, prepared to say what they think, prepared to propose a change in management, change in strategy, change in cost structure, capital structure.
I'm an extremely, extremely persistent person. Extremely. And when I believe I am right, and it is important, I will go to the end of the earth.
Investing is a business where you can look very silly for a long period of time before you are proven right.
I cannot invest the way I want the world to be; I have to invest the way the world is.
It is important for investors to understand what they do and don't know. Learn to recognize that you cannot possibly know what is going to happen in the future, and any investment plan that is dependent on accurately forecasting where markets will be next year is doomed to failure.
There is always something to worry about. Avoid weekend thinking and ignoring the latest dire predictions of the newscasters. Sell a stock because the company's fundamentals deteriorate, not because the sky is falling.
A stock certificate is not a tool, like a shovel, or a commodity, like a pound of cheese. What we sell a customer is not a share in a business, but a view of the Elysian Fields. A financier is a creative artist. Our function is to stimulate the imagination. We are poets!
In other words, the percentage change in book value in any given year is likely to be reasonably close to that year's change in intrinsic value.
Observing that the market was FREQUENTLY efficient, EMT Adherents went on to conclude incorrectly that it was ALWAYS efficient. The difference between these propositions is night and day.
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