Quotes on Investing

Be wary of the arrogant intellectual who comments from the stands without having played on the field.

To reduce risk it is necessary to avoid a portfolio whose securities are all highly correlated with each other. One hundred securities whose returns rise and fall in near unison afford little protection than the uncertain return of a single security.

Investors repeatedly jump ship on a good strategy just because it hasn't worked so well lately, and, almost invariably, abandon it at precisely the wrong time.

You must value the business in order to value the stock.

To achieve satisfactory investment results is easier than most people realize; to achieve superior results is harder than it looks.

Everyone wins when children - and especially girls – have access to education. An educated girl is likely to increase her personal earning potential and prepare herself for a productive and fulfilling life, as well as reduce poverty in the whole community. Investing in girls' education also helps delay early marriage and parenthood. Our booming economies in Africa need more female engineers, teachers and doctors to prosper and sustain growth.

One of the best rules anybody can learn about investing is to do nothing, absolutely nothing, unless there is something to do. Most people – not that I’m better than most people – always have to be playing; they always have to be doing something. They make a big play and say, “Boy, am I smart, I just tripled my money.” Then they rush out and have to do something else with that money. They can’t just sit there and wait for something new to develop

If you're lucky enough to have been rewarded in life to the degree that I have, there comes a point at which you have to decide whether to become a slave to your net worth by devoting the rest of your life to increasing it or to let what you've accumulated begin to serve you.

In the long run, a portfolio of well chosen stocks and/or equity mutual funds will always outperform a portfolio of bonds or a money-market account. In the long run, a portfolio of poorly chosen stocks won't outperform the money left under the mattress.

We've used derivatives for many, many years. I don't think derivatives are evil, per se, I think they are dangerous.

When anyone says to me, 'Can you keep a secret?' I say, 'Why should I, if you can't?'

You hear all this whining going on, "Where are our great writers?" The thing I might feel doleful about is: Where are the readers?

When you sell options, you get paid for assuming risk. That can be a profitable business, but it does not mix well with the risks inherent in a leveraged portfolio.

The concept of a general equilibrium has no relevance to the real world (in other words, classical economics is an exercise in futility).

The only thing that could hurt me is if my success encouraged me to return to my childhood fantasies of omnipotence - but that is not likely to happen as long as I remain engaged in the financial markets, because they constantly remind me of my limitations.

It is credit that matters, not money (in other words, monetarism is a false ideology).

When interest rates are low we have conditions for asset bubbles to develop, and they are developing at the moment. The ultimate asset bubble is gold.

Whenever there is a conflict between universal principles and self-interest, self-interest is likely to prevail.

When money is free, the rational lender will keep on lending until there is no one else to lend to.

In a commodity business, it's very hard to be smarter than your dumbest competitor.

A hyperactive stock market is the pickpocket of enterprise.