Investment and the Stock Market | Maxires Training & Consulting

1. A stockbroker is someone who takes all your money and invests it until it’s gone.

Woody Allen (b.1935) U.S. actor, humorist, producer and director. Quoted in Economist (London) (October 25, 1997)

2. When Wall Street sneezes, London catches cold.

Anonymous. Quoted in Treasury of Investment Wisdom (Bernice Cohen; 1999)

3. The trend is your friend.

Anonymous. Referring to financial advice. Quoted in Treasury of Investment Wisdom (Bernice Cohen; 1999)

4. My advice to this investor is the same that I give to the young investors in my classes…Devote the same earnest attention to investing that $50,000 as you devoted to earning it.

Ivan Boesky (b.1937) U.S. financier convicted of insider dealing in 1987. Quoted in Wall Street Journal (January 2, 1985)

5. Investing is an act of faith. We entrust our capital to corporate stewards in the faith-at least with the hope-that their efforts will generate high rates of return on our investments.

John Clifton Bogle (b.1929) U.S. investment analyst, founder and C.E.O. of the Vanguard Group. Common Sense on Mutual Funds: New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor (1999), ch. 1

6. The historical data support one conclusion with unusual force: To invest with success, you must be a long-term investor.

John Clifton Bogle (b.1929) U.S. investment analyst, founder and C.E.O. of the Vanguard Group. Common Sense on Mutual Funds: New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor (1999), ch. 1

7. Marketing has displaced management as the industry’s chief principle, and expenditures on investment advisory services are dwarfed by expenditures on advertising and sales promotion.

John Clifton Bogle (b.1929) U.S. investment analyst, founder and C.E.O. of the Vanguard Group. Referring to mutual funds. John Bogle on Investing: The First 50 Years (2000), Introduction

8. Blackest Panic Day of All, Record 16,410,000 shares traded. No bids at last prices. No bids-no bids.

John V. Bouvier, JR. (1865-1948) U.S. lawyer. October 29, 1929, “Black Tuesday,” marked the height of the crash on Wall Street that ushered in the Great Depression. Diary entry (October 29, 1929)

9. Companies such as Coca-Cola and Gillette might well be labeled “The Inevitables”…no sensible observer…questions that Coke and Gillette will dominate their fields worldwide for an investment lifetime…Obviously many companies in high-tech businesses will grow much faster than will “The Inevitables.” But I would rather be certain of a good result than hopeful of a great one.

Warren Buffett (b.1930) U.S. entrepreneur and financier. Chairman’s Letter to Shareholders (February 28, 1997)

10. If you aren’t willing to own a stock for ten years, don’t even think about owning it for ten minutes.

Warren Buffett (b.1930) U.S. entrepreneur and financier. Chairman’s Letter to Shareholders (February 28, 1997)

11. If you expect to be a net saver during the next five years, should you hope for a higher or lower stock market?…Many investors get this one wrong…Only those who will be sellers of equities in the near future should be happy at seeing stocks rise.

Warren Buffett (b.1930) U.S. entrepreneur and financier. Chairman’s Letter to Shareholders (February 27, 1998)

12. In assessing risk, a beta purist will disdain examining what a company produces, what its competitors are doing…What he treasures is the price history of its stock. In contrast, we seek whatever information will further our understanding of the company’s business. After we buy a stock we would not be disturbed if markets closed for a year ot two.

Warren Buffett (b.1930) U.S. entrepreneur and financier. Chairman’s Letter to Shareholders (March 7, 1995)

13. Smile when you read a headline that says “Investors lose as market falls.” Edit it in your mind to “Disinvestors lose as market falls-but investors gain.” Though writers often forget this truism, there is a buyer for every seller and what hurts one necessarily helps the other.

Warren Buffett (b.1930) U.S. entrepreneur and financier. Chairman’s Letter to Shareholders (February 27, 1998)

14. The true investors welcomes volatility…a wildly fluctuating market means that irrationally low prices will periodically be attached to solid businesses.

Warren Buffett (b.1930) U.S. entrepreneur and financier. Chairman’s Letter to Shareholders (March 5, 1995)

15. What an investor needs is the ability to correctly evaluate selected businesses. Note that word “selected”: You don’t have to be an expert on every company, or even man, You only have to be able to evaluate companies within your circle of competence. The size of that circle is not very important; knowing its boundaries, however, is vital.

Warren Buffett (b.1930) U.S. entrepreneur and financier. Chairman’s Letter to Shareholders (February 28, 1997)

16. Why potential buyers even look at projections prepared by sellers baffles me…I never give them a glance, but instead keep in mind the story of the man with an ailing horse. Visiting the vet, he said: “Can you help me? Sometimes my horse walks just fine and sometimes he limps.” The vet’s reply was pointed: “No problem-when he’s walking fine, sell him.”

Warren Buffett (b.1930) U.S. entrepreneur and financier. Chairman’s Letter to Shareholders (March 1, 1996)

17. Your goal as an investor…to purchase, at a rational price, a part of interest in an easily-understandable business whose earnings are virtually certain to be materially higher…years from now. Over time, you will find only a few companies that meet these standards-so when you see one…buy a meaningful amount of stock.

Warren Buffett (b.1930) U.S. entrepreneur and financier. Chairman’s Letter to Shareholders (February 28, 1997)

18. The truly big investment idea can usually be explained in a short paragraph. We like a business with enduring competitive advantages that is run by able and owner-oriented people. When these attributes exist, and when we can make purchases at sensible prices, it is hard to go wrong.

Warren Buffett (b.1930) U.S. entrepreneur and financier. Explaining Berkshire Hathaway’s investment principles. Chairman’s Letter to Shareholders (March 7, 1995)

19. Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction.

Warren Buffett (b.1930) U.S. entrepreneur and financier. Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report (2002)

20. Unfortunately the hangover from the market bubble may prove to be proportionate to the binge.

Warren Buffett (b.1930) U.S. entrepreneur and financier. Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report (2002)

21. I don’t pay attention to what the stock does. If the business does well, the stock eventually follows.

Warren Buffett (b.1930) U.S. entrepreneur and financier. Business Week (1994)

22. Buy stocks like you buy your groceries, not like you buy your perfume.

Warren Buffett (b.1930) U.S. entrepreneur and financier. Fortune (March 9, 1992)

23. It was a mass hallucination, by fat the biggest in my lifetime.

Warren Buffett (b.1930) U.S. entrepreneur and financier. Referring to the market boom of dot.com company shares. Quoted in Fortune (October 2002)

24. A group of lemmings looks like a pack of individuals compared with Wall Street when it gets a concept in its teeth.

Warren Buffett (b.1930) U.S. entrepreneur and financier. Quoted in Treasury of Investment Wisdom (Bernice Cohen; 1999)

25. Business is all about putting out money today to get a whole lot back later.

Warren Buffett (b.1930) U.S. entrepreneur and financier. Quoted in Treasury of Investment Wisdom (Bernice Cohen; 1999)

26. Never speculate…if you have sayings, invest them in solid securities, lands or property. The man who gambles upon the exchanges is in the condition of the man who gambles at the gaming table. He rarely, if ever, makes a permanent success.

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) U.S. industrialist and philanthropist. The sixth of his rules of business success. “From Oakland: How to Succeed in Life,” The Pittsburgh Bulletin (December 19, 1903)

27. Too many companies, especially large ones, are driven more and more narrowly by the need to ensure that investors get good quarterly returns and to justify executives’ high salaries. Too often, this means that they view most employees as costs.

Hillary Clinton (b.1947) U.S. lawyer, politician and former first lady. It Takes a Village (1996)

28. London’s preoccupation is one for returns rather than maintaining capital. Still less is the City concerned with sustaining British industry.

Ralf Dahrendorf (b.1929) British sociologist. On Britain (1982)

29. While…economic elements and fundamentals are underlying the market, the next 10 percent move in the market…is going to be driven by psychology.

Gail Dudack (b.1948) U.S. managing director and chief investment strategist of UBS Securities Ltd. Quoted in Women of the Street (Sue Herera; 1997)

30. There is no human feeling to the U.S. securities markets and sometimes no discernible evidence of human intelligence either. But they work.

Robert J. Eaton (b.1940) U.S. automobile industry executive and ebgineer. Speech (March 18, 1996)

31. Contacts with economists take years to develop and then you’ve got to know the biases of those economists.

Elaine Garzarelli (b.1951) U.S. C.E.O. and president of Garzarelli Investment Management. Quoted in Women of the Street (Sue Herera; 1998)

32. Good moves are anticipatory. That’s why when things look great you sell; when things look horrible you buy.

Elaine Garzarelli (b.1951) U.S. C.E.O. and president of Garzarelli Investment Management. Quoted in Women of the Street (Sue Herera; 1998)

33. If risky investments turn out poorly-as risky investments are wont to do on occasion-governments of international financial institutions should not endeavor to shield investors from loss. This is as it should be, since investors earn premiums to compensate for the risks of such investments.

Alan Greenspan (b.1926) U.S. economist and chairman of U.S. Federal Reserve Board. Speech to the Financial Crisis Conference, Council on Foreign Relations, New York. “Global Challenges” (July 12, 2000)

34. Private capital markets are the fundamental building block of the capitalist system of resource allocation across activities and over time. Such markets can function properly only if investors bear the costs of their bad decisions and bad luck and reap the benefits of their good decisions and good luck.

35. Market share is gained and lost at times of technology breaks. This is the mother of all technology breaks…So the opportunity to try and bet on the horse that’s going to get ahead is very, very tempting. At the same time, the ability to discriminate between one choice and another choice in this very noisy investment environment is becoming very difficult.

Andrew S. Grove (b.1936) U.S. entrepreneur, author, and chairman of Intel Corporation. Speech, Los Angeles Times 3^rd Annual Investment Strategies conference, Los Angeles, California (May 22, 1999)

36. This is a challenging time to be a participant and a challenging time to be an investor also, because what you have in front of you is the wholesale reengineering of the U.S. and, for that matter, the global gross domestic product delivery.

Andrew S. Grove (b.1936) U.S. entrepreneur, author, and chairman of Intel Corporation. Speech, Los Angeles Times 3^rd Annual Investment Strategies conference, Los Angeles, California (May 22, 1999)

37. The public may be willing to forgive us for mistakes in judgment but it will not forgive us for mistakes in motive.

Robert W. Haack (1917-92) U.S. president of New York Stock Exchange. Wall Street Journal (October 17, 1967)

38. Knowledge resides in the heads of people. Shareholders cannot own it since owning people is not considered moral. It is also not practical. Acquisitions of intellectual capital firms therefore often fail.

Charles Handy (b.1932) British business executive and author. Speech at the Second Workshop on Inventing the Organization of the 21^st Century, Munich, Germany. “The Age of Paradox” (April 1996)

39. Only a fool holds out for the top dollar.

Joseph P. Kennedy (1888-1969) U.S. entrepreneur, government official and diplomat. Following this bearish maxim, Kennedy offloaded his stock during the speculative frenzy of summer 1929. During the subsequent market collapse he famously pursued a strategy of selling stocks short. By 1930 he was estimated to be worth $100 million compared with some $8 million before the Great Crash. Quoted in The Edge of Chaos: Financial Booms, Bubbles, Crashes and Chaos (Bernice Coihen; 1997), pt. 1, ch. 2

40. Professionals and speculators are not primarily concerned with making superior long-term forecasts but with foreseeing changes in the conventional basis of valuation a short time ahead of the general public.

John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) British economist. The Genmeral Theory of Employment Interest and Money (1936)

41. Speculators may do no harm as bubbles on the steady of enterprise. But the position is serious when enterprise becomes the bubble on the whirl-pool of speculation.

John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) British economist. The Genmeral Theory of Employment Interest and Money (1936)

42. Investors don’t like uncertainty. When there’s uncertainty, they always think that there’s another shoe to fall. There is no other shoe to fall.

Kenneth Lay (b.1942) U.S. business executive. Referring to concerns about the later-bankrupt Enron. Quoted in Business Week (December 14, 2001)

43. It is not the pace of technology or the brilliance of innovation that guarantees the success of our markets, but rather an unyielding commitment to quality…Quality, at its broadcast and most basic level, is the protection of the investor interest. This principle reaffirms a simple and salient truth-markets exist by the grace of investors.

Arthur Levitt, JR. (b.1931) U.S. author and former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Speech to the Columbia Law School, new York City. “Dynamic Markets, Timeless Principles” (September 23, 1999)

44. We should never lose sight of the underlying essence of a market-a place where buyers and sellers come together. Every other feature-whether crafted by tradition or technology-exists only to serve that primary purpose.

45. At its most basic level, a market represents an agreement between two people. For that market to sustain long-term health, those two people must honor that agreement. They must trust each other…you can have all the technology and global forces you want, but it’s useless if basic trust odes not exist.

Arthur Levitt, JR. (b.1931) U.S. author and former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Speech to the Securities Industry Association Annual Meeting, Boca Raton, Florida. “Meeting the Challenges of a 21^st Century Marketplace” (November 6, 1998)

46. For the most individuals, the stock market is best used for investing, not trading…On-line trading may be quick and easy; on-line investing requires old-fashioned elbow grease like researching a company or making the time to appreciate the level of risk. I’m often surprised by investors who spend more time deciding what movie they’ll rent than on which stock to buy.

Arthur Levitt, JR. (b.1931) U.S. author and former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Speech to the National Press Club. “Plain Talk about On-Line Investing” (May 4, 1999)

47. I’m concerned that some of the basic but important fundamentals of investing are being lost on investors. Or even worse, simply ignored. Unless investors truly understand both the opportunities and the risks of today’s market, too many may fall victim to their own wishful thinking.

Arthur Levitt, JR. (b.1931) U.S. author and former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Speech to the Finance Conference 2000, Boston College, Boston, MA. “The New Economy” (March 6, 2000)

48. If past is prologue, many new companies rushing to market today will not be around for the long haul, perhaps not even a few years from now. Investors today cannot fall prey to an urge that tells them it’s okay to suspend good judgment and invest with their eyes closed and their fingers crossed.

49. More and more. Americans are investing in our stock markets…Standing in line at the supermarket or the hardware store, you’re as likely to hear about the Nasdaq’s performance as you are Monday night’s football score.

50. Much of today’s activity highlights an important difference between trading and investing. Trading is buying in the belief that the stock price will rise-regardless of what the buyer actually thinks it’s worth…Investing for the long term means focusing on the fundamentals that make up a solid company…no matter how revolutionary change is.

51. Successful investors, through good times and bad, focus a vigilant eye on managing risk. Periods of promise and prosperity are not an excuse for us to let our guard down. In fact, it’s times like these when we need to raise it even higher.

52. These are not easy times. Pressures proliferate. Responsibilities overlap. Objectives run counter to each other. Demands often are at cross-purposes. But, investors, regardless, continue to value companies that achieve through honesty and hard work.

53. If investors lose faith in the integrity of our markets’ prices, they will go elsewhere. If investors believe that they are not receiving high quality financial information, they will go elsewhere. If they believe that their interests are being placed secondary for any reason whatsoever, they will go elsewhere.

54. Investors today commit capital because they have confidence in the quality and the integrity of America’s markets. That faith does more than fuel markets-it makes markets possible. In many respects, the dynamism of our market system depends on integrity, professionalism, and the public confidence they inspire.

Arthur Levitt, JR. (b.1931) U.S. author and former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Speech, Economic Club of Washington, Washington, D.C. (April 6, 2000)

55. We are living in a time when investors are increasingly able to shift their capital in and out of markets cheaply and easily…the road to restoring lost confidence is a long one indeed. As those of you with a bit of gray hair know well, no market has a divine right to the savings of America’s investors.

Arthur Levitt, JR. (b.1931) U.S. author and former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Speech, Economic Club of Washington, Washington, D.C. (April 6, 2000)

56. Never invest in any ideas you can’t illustrate with a crayon.

Peter Lynch (b.1944) U.S. fund manager. Beating the Street (1993)

57. We told you that the time would come when the master would become impersonal, and that powers that have nothing to do with industry would control industry-the powers of gambling with credit.

Ramsay McDonald (1866-1937) British prime minister. Speech, Llandudno, Wales (October 7, 1930)

58. Women actually do quite well on Wall Street because so much of this business is intuitive.

Elizabeth MacKay, U.S. investment strategist and managing director of Bear Stearns. Quoted in Women of the Street (Sue Herera; 1997)

59. We do advise in no uncertain terms that you take advantage of the present high prices.

Charles Merrill (1885-1956) U.S. stockbroker, cofounder of Merrill Lynch & Co. Summer 1929. Letter to customers sent before the October 1929 Great Crash on Wall Street. Quoted in “main Street Broker,” Time 100: Heroes and Inspirations (December 1999)

60. I do not really understand the stock market.

Narayana Murthy (b.1946) Indian founder and C.E.O. of Infosys. Quoted in www.rediff.com (2000)

61. I can calculate the motions of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.

Isaac Newton (1642-1727) English mathematician and physicist. Referring to his losses having bought “South Sea shares.” Quoted in Treasury of Investment Wisdom (Bernice Cohen; 1999)

62. Management have been allowed to act like owners. But it is the stockholders who own companies, not managements and the stockholders are just beginning to realize it.

Boone Pickens (b.1928) U.S. oil company executive and financier. Interview, Sunday Times (London) (December 1, 1985)

63. Make your company stock a consumer product. When consumer buy stock in your company, they’ll never buy a competitive product. You’ve linked their financial future to yours.

Faith Popcorn (b.1947) U.S. trend expert and founder of Brain Reserve. “Q&A with Faith Popcorn,” www.brainreserve.com (1999)

64. The stock market is just like a sieve…through the holes…the little investors go. They pick themselves up, do

something to get some more money, and then…away they go again.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) U.S. actor, columnist and humorist. “Battling Wall Street,” Tulsa Daily World (November 10, 1929)

65 .Never invest your money in anything that eats or needs repainting.

Billy Rose (1899-1966) U.S. theatrical impresario and composer. New York Post (October 26, 1957)

66. “Wall Street,” runs the sinister old gag, “is a street with a river at one end and a graveyard at the other.” This is striking, but incomplete. It omits the kindergarten in the middle.

Fred Schwed (1901?-1966) U.S. author. Where Are The Customers’ Yachts? (1940)

67. It’s important to understand that investing is in no way an intellectual pursuit in which “research,” “information,” and “business degrees” are more important than common sense, greed control, discipline, and experience.

Steven R. Selengut (b.1945) U.S. investment manager and founder of Sanco Services. A Millionaire’s Secret Investment Strategy (1999)

68. Volatility is more a function of what’s reported in the media than the actual fundamentals of companies and economics. And this is precisely what creates the opportunity for profit!

Steven R. Selengut (b.1945) U.S. investment manager and founder of Sanco Services. A Millionaire’s Secret Investment Strategy (1999)

69. A crash does not come knocking at the front door by appointment.

Jim Slater (b.1929) British business executive and author. Quoted in treasury of Investment Wisdom (Bernice Cohen; 1999)

70. As few people know very much about Zulus, anyone who takes the trouble to study them can become an expert.

Jim Slater (b.1929) British business executive and author. Referring to his “Zulu Principle” for investment. Quoted in treasury of Investment Wisdom (Bernice Cohen; 1999)

71. They seldom pretend to understand anything of the business of the company…but receive contentedly such half yearly or yearly dividends, as the directors think proper to make them.

Adam Smith (1723-90) British economist and philosopher. Referring to stockholders in joint-stock companies. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), bk. 5, ch. 1, pt. 3, article 1

72. Financial markets…resent any kind of government interference but they hold a belief deep down that if conditions get really rough the authorities will step in.

George Soros (b.1930) U.S. financier, entrepreneur and philanthropist. The Crisis of Global Capitalism (1998)

73. The stock market adopts a thesis and tests it; when it fails, as it usually does, it tries out another…that is what produces market fluctuations.

George Soros (b.1930) U.S. financier, entrepreneur and philanthropist. The Crisis of Global Capitalism (1998)

74. It’s not whether you are right or wrong that’s important, but how much money you make when you’re right and how much you lose when you’re wrong.

George Soros (b.1930) U.S. financier, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Quoted in Treasury of Investment Wisdom (Bernice Cohen; 1999)

75. The City has one rule which it always obeys even in the face of social prejudice: “If there is money in it we must move in.”

Gerald Sparrow (1903-88) British business executive and writer. “The City” means the financial center of London. How to Become a Millionaire (1960), ch. 8

76. The City has persuaded itself-it is cardinal doctrine-that what is good for the City is good for Britain.

Gerald Sparrow (1903-88) British business executive and writer. “The City” means the financial center of London. How to Become a Millionaire (1960), ch. 8

77. There should be some professional exam for these analysts. Most of the time they talk through their backsides.

Alan Sugar (b.1947) British entrepreneur, founder and chairman of Amstrad electronics company. Referring to stock market analysts. Quoted in the Amstrad Story (David Thomas; 1990)

78. Property and stock market crashes…litter the history of capitalism. But at the same time there is no evidence that anyone has ever been successful in preventing such a crash.

Lester Thurow (b.1938) U.S. economist, management theorist, and writer. “Barking up the Wrong Tree,” www.lthurow.com (November 2, 1999)

79. Some of the greatest investors I have ever known invest by instinct, rather than research, study, or hard work. If you look back over history, this is the way the greatest fortunes have been built.

Donald J. Trump (b.1946) U.S. real estate developer. Trump: The Art of the Comeback (co-written with Kate Bohner; 1997)

80. Sometimes your best investments are the ones you don’t make.Donald J. Trump (b.1946) U.S. real estate developer. Quoted in Trump: The Art of the Deal (co-written with Tony Schwartz; 1987)

81. October. This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) U.S. writer. Quoted in The Edge of Chaos: Financial Booms, Bubbles, Crashes and Chaos (Bernice Cohen; 1997)

82. The stock price is not really interesting at all. The stock price is a lot like the weather. You could walk outside and it could be raining, it could be snowing, there could be a hurricane. I don’t control the weather.

Jay S. Walker, U.S. entrepreneur, founder of Priceline.com, and C.E.O. of Walker Digital Corporation. Quoted in “Idea Man,” The Standard (Todd Woody; 1999)

83. The only reason to invest in the market is because you think you know something others don’t.

Foster Winans (b.1948) U.S. journalist and author. Newsweek (December 1, 1986)

84. I don’t invest in anything I don’t understand-it makes more sense to buy TV stations than oil well.

Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) U.S. talk show host, actor, and business executive. Quoted in Oprah Winfrey Speaks (Janet Lowe; 1998)

85. on Wall Street he and a few others-how many?-three hundred, four hundred, five hundred?-had become precisely that…Masters of the Universe.

Tom Wolfe (b.1931) U.S. novelist and journalist. The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987), ch. 1

86. A broker is a man who takes your fortune and runs it into a shoestring.

Alexander Woollcott (1887-1943) U.S. journalist and writer. Quoted in Alexander Woollcott (S. Hopkins Adams; 1945), ch. 13