The mutual fund industry has been built, in a sense, on witchcraft.
In the long run, investing is not about markets at all. Investing is about enjoying the returns earned by businesses.
Time is your friend; impulse is your enemy.
Investing is not nearly as difficult as it looks. Successful investing involves doing a few things right and avoiding serious mistakes.
The historical data support one conclusion with unusual force: To invest with success, you must be a long-term investor.
Don’t look for the needle in the haystack. Just buy the haystack!
The mistakes we make as investors is when the market’s going up, we think it’s going to go up forever. When the market goes down, we think it’s going to go down forever. Neither of those things actually happen. Doesn’t do anything forever. It’s by the moment.
Index funds eliminate the risks of individual stocks, market sectors, and manager selection. Only stock market risk remains.
The stock market is a giant distraction to the business of investing.
Learn every day, but especially from the experiences of others. It’s cheaper!
Speculation leads you the wrong way. It allows you to put your emotions first, whereas investment gets emotions out of the picture.
Surprise! The returns reported by mutual funds aren’t actually earned by mutual fund investors.
We need a mutual fund industry with both vision and values; a vision of fiduciary duty and shareholder service, and values rooted in the proven principles of long-term investing and of trusteeship that demands integrity in serving our clients.
Rely on the ordinary virtues that intelligent, balanced human beings have relied on for centuries: common sense, thrift, realistic expectations, patience, and perseverance.
It’s amazing how difficult it is for a man to understand something if he’s paid a small fortune not to understand it.
The transfer of Wall Street from private ownership to public ownership has been a big step backward.
If your fund doesn’t last for the long term, how can you invest for the long term?
Your success in investing will depend in part on your character and guts, and in part on your ability to realize at the height of ebullience and the depth of despair alike that this too shall pass.