“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

Following my post this week on the worst 10 year 50/50 stock/bond portfolio returns I received a number of requests from people asking what these performance numbers would look like on a real (inflation-adjusted) basis.  Here are annualized the results: The deflationary period of the 1930s actually improves the performance of those 10-year cycles.  A…

“The stock market is designed to transfer money from the active to the patient.” – Warren Buffett Last night on Twitter I posted the following table of 10 year S&P 500 annualized returns (which I’ve used in the past): This shows the worst rolling calendar 10-year return numbers going back to 1928. You can see…

One of the biggest worries about the economy these days is the fact that inflation is still relatively low. Fed Chair Janet Yellen said as much this past week: With inflation running at around 1 percent, at this point I think the risk is greater that we should be worried about inflation undershooting our goal…

“Avoid the twin impostors of short term out- and under-performance. It is important for us to remember what really matters is the long-term.” – Howard Marks At what point in the past are you judging your stock performance? The first few weeks of April? Didn’t look so great. The last year? Much better. 2008? Not…