Stocks

Bargains

If you"re going to buy the best bargains, you have to buy the things that people are selling. Sir John Marks Templeton - value investor and philanthropist (1912-2008), Quotations book 2014

Selection

First, you need two piles. You have to segregate businesses you can understand and reasonably predict from those you don’t understand and can’t reasonably predict. An example is chewing gum versus software. You also have to recognize what you can and can not know. Put everything you can’t understand or that is difficult to predict in one pile. That is the too hard pile. Once you know the...

Measuring risk

Volatility does not measure risk. The problem is that the people who have written and taught about risk do not know how to measure risk. Beta is nice because it is mathematical, it is easy to calculate and it is wrong –past volatility does not determine the risk of investing. In early 1980s, farmland that had gone for $2,000 an acre, went for $600 an acre. Beta shot up. I was apparently...

Bargains

The best bargains are not stocks whose prices are down most, but rather those stocks having the lowest prices in relation to possible earning power of future years. Sir John Marks Templeton - value investor and philanthropist (1912-2008), Quotations book 2011

Return on equity

The primary test of managerial economic performance is the achievement of high earnings rate on equity capital employed. Warren Buffett - American value investor, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (b. 1930), Quotations book 2011

Bob Farrell’s 10 rules

1. Markets tend to return to the mean over time. 2. Excesses in one direction will lead to an opposite excess in the other direction. 3. There are no new eras - excesses are never permanent. 4. Exponential rapidly rising or falling markets usually go further than you think, but they do not correct by going sideways. 5. The public buys the most at the top and the least at the bottom. 6. Fear...

Cosmopolitanism

Common sense tells you that you will find more and sometimes better investment opportunities if you search everywhere in the world. Sir John Marks Templeton - value investor and philanthropist (1912-2008), Quotations book 2010

Speculation

Speculation...is neither illegal, immortal nor un-American. But is not a game in which Charlie and I wish to play. We bring nothing to the party, so why should we expect to take anything home? Warren Buffett - American value investor, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (b. 1930), Quotations book 2010

Price and value

Share prices fluctuate more than share values. Sir John Marks Templeton - value investor and philanthropist (1912-2008), Quotations book 2010

Buy and sell

To buy when others are despondently selling and to sell when others are greedily buying requires the greatest fortitude and pays the greatest ultimate reward. Sir John Marks Templeton - value investor and philanthropist (1912-2008), Quotations book 2010

Courage

Similarly, in the world of securities, courage becomes the supreme virtue after adequate knowledge and a tested judgment are at Hand. Benjamin Graham - born Benjamin Großbaum, American investor and inventor of systematic stocks analysis (1894-1976), from "The Intelligent Investor" (1949)

Investing

Investing is easier than you think, but harder than it looks. Warren Buffett - American value investor, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (b. 1930)

Attractive

We love owning common stocks - if they can be purchased at attractive prices. Unless, however, we see a very high probability of at least 10% pre-tax returns, we will sit on the sidelines. Warren Buffett - American value investor, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (b. 1930)

Investment opportunities

Great investment opportunities come around when excellent companies are surrounded by unusual circumstances that cause the stock to be misappraised. Warren Buffett - American value investor, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (b. 1930)

Successful stock

If a business does well, the stock eventually follows. Warren Buffett - American value investor, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (b. 1930)

Broker not partner

If you think you can dance in and out of stocks I want to be your broker not your partner. Warren Buffett - American value investor, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (b. 1930)

Invest in Businesses

The basic ideas of investing are to look at stocks as businesses, use market fluctuations to your advantage and seek a margin of safety. That"s what Ben Graham taught us... A hundred years from now they will still be the cornerstones of investing. Warren Buffett - American value investor, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (b. 1930)

Wall Street

Wall Street hasn"t really changed all that much. It still operates on the principle of taking care of itself first, really big and important customers second, everyone else last. Allan Sloan - American journalist (b. 1944), in "Lessons of the crash of "08", Fortune Magazine, September 28th 2009

Margin of Safety

We are not paid by our customers to hold stocks without a margin of safety. Amit Wadhwaney - American fund manager (b. 1953)

Wall Street

Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway. Warren Buffett - American value investor, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (b. 1930), Quotations book 2007