“Even investors who were guided by a quantitative stock selection system can let their human inconsistencies hogtie them.” – Jim O’Shaughnessy

“Far more money has been lost by investors preparing for corrections, or trying to anticipate corrections, than has been lost in corrections themselves.” – Peter Lynch I recently came across an old Peter Lynch interview for Frontline on PBS from the mid-1990s. In it the legendary former mutual fund manager discusses a wide range of…

“The only investors who shouldn’t diversify are those who are right 100 percent of the time.” – John Templeton It’s often said that diversification is the only free lunch in finance. However, this an incomplete statement because diversification alone doesn’t get you all the way there. There are no benefits to diversification if you don’t…

“Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.” – Warren Buffett I got some pushback on my piece last night called Why Does Buy and Hold Have to be Impossible?. I know what you’re thinking — people disagreeing on the Internet!? Here are some clarifications on some of the main topics covered: Think and Act for the…

“Wealth isn’t primarily determined by investment performance, but by investment behavior.” – Nick Murray Dr. Andrew Lo, a finance professor at MIT, recently shared his thoughts on a long-term, buy and hold strategy to Chuck Jaffe of MarketWatch: That might sound like good advice because on paper when you take a look at the S&P over…

“It makes little sense that we should care about a bad day or a bad year in the stock market if it provides us with good long-term returns.” – William Bernstein Bill McBride at Calculated Risk shared an amazing stat a few weeks ago: Imagine if you were born in 1900. You’d have a 23%…

“I don’t think that many investors have learned that the more you press, the more problems you get into.” – Peter Bernstein By far the best thing I read this week was an article by Jason Zweig. It had nothing to do with current events or risks in the markets. In fact, it was published…

“Risk means more things can happen than will happen.” – Elroy Dimson

“There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.” – Harry Truman The 1980s and 1990s was a period of unprecedented financial market performance. These are the annual 220-year return numbers for simple total stock and total bond portfolio invested in the U.S. markets: These return numbers are absolutely mind-blowing…

“Warren [Buffett], don’t worry too much about making money. It won’t change the way you live. It’ll change the way your wife lives.” – Benjamin Graham The first investment book I ever read was The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. Graham’s analogy about Mr. Market that he used to describe the stock market is still…