Investing Quotes - Page 33

Risk means more things can happen than will happen.

Confidence in a forecast rises with the amount of information that goes into it. But the accuracy of the forecast stays the same.

Question: So investors shouldn't delude themselves about beating the market? Answer: "They're just not going to do it. It's just not going to happen."

Before I came along, my field was dominated by myth, superstition, deceit, and outright fraud. I overcame it by the simple application of logical thinking.

The probable is what usually happens.

The stage of investing that I do is seed stage, so it's really early. Here's a pair of founders who maybe have a prototype. They have a little bit of traction, maybe one employee, tops. At that stage, you really, really can only evaluate a company based on those founders and what they've been able to build. It's very, very team driven.

If you put two economists xin a room, you get two opinions, unless one of them is Lord Keynes, in which case you get three opinions.

What's both fascinating and challenging about investing is that the changing nature of business and finance means you can never have it all figured out.

Accounting consequences do not influence our operating or capital-allocation decisions. When acquisition costs are similar, we much prefer to purchase $2 of earnings that is not reportable by us under standard accounting principles than to purchase $1 of earnings that is reportable.

[W]e think the very term 'value investing' is redundant. What is 'investing' if it is not the act of seeking value at least sufficient to justify the amount paid? Consciously paying more for a stock than its calculated value -- in the hope that it can soon be sold for a still-higher price -- should be labeled speculation (which is neither illegal, immoral nor -- in our view -- financially fattening).

With enough insider information and a million dollars, you can go broke in a year.

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

If you expect to continue to purchase stocks throughout your life, you should welcome price declines as a way to add stocks more cheaply to your portfolio.

We really can say no in 10 seconds or so to 90%+ of all the things that come along simply because we have these filters.

A country does not go bankrupt.

Ben didn't want to lose money. He had had a rough time during the depression.

You want to know a sure way to lose money? Buy what's popular and don't know what you are investing in.

I'm investing in myself, I'm investing in others and I'm investing in my cause. I know if I persist it will pay back in dividends and it always does.

We can extrapolate from the study that for the long term individual investor who maintains a consistent asset allocation and leans toward index funds, asset allocation determines about 100% of performance.

On average, 90 percent of the variability of returns and 100 percent of the absolute level of return is explained by asset allocation.

When stock prices are rising, it's called ''momentum investing''; when they are falling, it's called ''panic.''

When a possibility is unfamiliar to us, we do not even think about it.

History doesn't crawl; it leaps.

There is empirical evidence that leading brands that keep investing during recessions gain share.

I suppose if I were younger, I would be investing in Africa.