“Good advice rarely changes, while markets change constantly. The temptation to pander is almost irresistible. And while people need good advice, what they want is advice that sounds good.” – Jason Zweig Working in the investment industry and writing on this website means I get a decent number of people asking to me about the markets…

“Rule number one: most things will prove to be cyclical. Rule number two: some of the greatest opportunities for gain and loss come when people forget rule number one.” – Howard Mark Here’s a breakdown of the S&P 500 sector ETFs ranked from best to worst performance by year over the past decade along with…

“Wealth isn’t primarily determined by investment performance, but by investment behavior.” – Nick Murray I’m convinced that the majority of the behavioral problems that affect most individual and professional investors are all about perspective, not implementing the wrong tactics. There will always be more tactics presented to you every single day, but most of them…

“BOO-YAH.” – Jim Cramer “BOO-YAH.” – Stuart Scott My two favorite topics to follow are sports and the financial markets.  If you pay attention to the financial media for long enough you are bound to run across sport analogies.  It’s so easy to compare sports and finance. And you can definitely see the similarities between ESPN’s…

“Because people play an important role in determining the course of the financial markets, stock prices move like a manic-depressive.” – Howard Marks It looks like trading by individual investors is making a comeback. According to the Wall Street Journal, TD Ameritrade, E*Trade and Charles Schwab have all posted huge gains in trading volume to…

“I tell investors using valuation is a spectrum of future possibilities.  While buying expensive markets generally will produce lower future returns, you will have positive outliers.  The same for cheap markets, it’s usually a good idea but they can always get cheaper.” – Meb Faber Meb Faber posted an interesting chart on his blog a…

“Wall Street people learn nothing and forget everything.” – Benjamin Graham Portfolio managers have to be careful what they say in the press, through marketing materials and with clients. This is because, whether they admit it or not, they are first and foremost in the sales and marketing business (not that there’s anything wrong with…

“A house is certainly not an investment, for one simple reason: You have to live somewhere, and you are either going to have to pay for it or rent it. Always remember, investment is the deferral of present consumption for future consumption, and it anything qualifies as present consumption, it is a residence.” – William…

“Rule no. 1: Never lose money. Rule no. 2: Never forget rule no.1.” – Warren Buffett

“Value investors are not concerned with getting rich tomorrow. People who want to get rich quickly, will not get rich at all. There is nothing wrong with getting rich slowly.” – Warren Buffett