Nobody reads the disclosures that roll down your computer screen. You click 'I agree' but you don't know what you're agreeing to.
Nassim Nicholas TalebRead
When an investor focuses on short-term investments, he or she is observing the variability of the portfolio, not the returns - in short, being fooled by randomness.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Investors should avoid being misled by short-term fluctuations and focus on long-term results.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb emphasizes the importance of looking beyond short-term market variabilities that can obscure actual investment performance. Short-term observations often reflect randomness rather than the true value of an investment, leading investors to make poor decisions based on misleading signals. This quote reminds us to maintain a long-term perspective to avoid being deceived by market fluctuations.
Themes
InvestingRandomnessShort-TermPortfolioReturnsMarket
In practice
Example use cases
During a financial seminar to highlight the importance of long-term investments.
More from Nassim Nicholas Taleb
All quotes βFragility is the quality of things that are vulnerable to volatility.
Nassim Nicholas TalebRead
Those who were unlucky in life in spite of their skills would eventually rise. The lucky fool might have benefited from some luck in life; over the longer run he would slowly converge to the state of a less-lucky idiot. Each one would revert to his long-term properties.
Nassim Nicholas TalebRead
Individuals should think about the worst-case scenarios and plan for them. The world will be crazier than you think it will be. Put money away, and then you can live with much more freedom.
Nassim Nicholas TalebRead
A good maxim allows you to have the last word without even starting a conversation.
Nassim Nicholas TalebRead
A Stoic is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking.
Nassim Nicholas TalebRead
Similar quotes
You shouldn't just pick a stock - you should do your homework.
Peter LynchRead
To be an investor you must be a believer in a better tomorrow.
Benjamin GrahamRead
Investing is not nearly as difficult as it looks. Successful investing involves doing a few things right and avoiding serious mistakes.
John C. BogleRead
When it comes to portfolios, my personal advice is for anyone who can, put money into forestry or farmland. Long term, you would probably never come near their returns in the stock market. In the world that I see, land is golden.
Jeremy GranthamRead
If you are predisposed to be patient, disciplined and psychologically appreciate the idea of buying bargains, then you're likely to be good at it. If you have a need for action, if you want to be involved in the new and exciting technological breakthroughs of our time, that's great, but you're not a value investor, and you shouldn't be one.
Seth KlarmanRead
Growth and value investing are joined at the hip.
Warren BuffettRead