Rory Bamford

The Intelligent Investor pg. 12 Once you lose 95% of your money you have to gain 1900% just to get back where you started.The Intelligent Investor pg. 12 Once you lose 95% of your money you have to gain 1900% just to get back where you started.

No idea is true just because someone says so. Test ideas by the evidence gained from observation and experiment! If a favorite idea fails a well-designed test, it’s wrong! Richard Feynman

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you're the easiest person to fool" Richard Feynman"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you're the easiest person to fool" Richard Feynman

Strong, Strong words from Benjamin Graham. "A serious investor is not likely to believe that the day-to-day or even month-to-month fluctuations of the stock market make him richer or poorer. But what about the longer-term and wider changes? Here practical questions are likely to grow complicated. A substantial rise in the market is at once a legitimate reason for satisfaction and a cause for prudent concern, but it may also bring a strong temptation toward imprudent action.... Your shares have advanced, good! You are richer than you were, good! But has the price risen too high, and should you think of selling? Or should you kick yourself for not having bought more shares when the level was lower? Or--worst thought of all--should you now give way to the bull-market atmosphere, become infected with the enthusiasm, overconfidence and the greed of the great public (of which, after all, you are a part), and make larger and dangerous commitments? Presented thus in print, the answer to the last question is a self-evident NO, but even the intelligent investor is likely to need considerable will power to keep from following the crowd."

Even as many decades pass, amazing how nothing really changes in the stock market when it comes to value investing vs. speculation. "Between 1897 and 1949 there were ten complete market cycles, running from bear-market low to bull-market high and back to bear-market low. Six of these took no longer than four years, four ran for six or seven years, and one--the famous new-era cycle of 1921-1932--lasted eleven years. The percentage of subsequent declines ranged from 24% to 8...9%, with most found between 40% and 50%. (It sould be remembered that a decline of 50% fully offsets a preceding advance of 100%.) Nearly all the bull markets had a number of well-defined characteristics in common, such as (1) a historically high price level, (2) high price/earnings ratios, (3) low dividend yields as against bond yields, (4) much speculation on margin, and (5) many offerings of new common-stock issues of poor quality. The longer a bull market lasts, the more severely investors will be afflicted with amnesia; after five years or so, many people no longer believe that bear markets are even possible. All those who forget are doomed to be reminded; and, in the stock market, recovered memories are always unpleasant." - Pg. 192 & 193 The Intelligent Investor #value #investing #speculation