Insights from the most successful investors

If you’re like me, you like reading motivational quotes.

I’m particularly intrigued by those of successful investors.

Yahoo Finance recently ran a selection of these.

Here they are…

George Soros: Good investing is boring

“If investing is entertaining, if you’re having fun, you’re probably not making any money. Good investing is boring.”

Howard Marks: Investing is about more than selecting the asset

“Smart investing doesn’t consist of buying good assets, but of buying assets well. This is a very, very important distinction that very, very few people understand.”

Jack Bogle: Losses are a reality of the market

“If you have trouble imagining a 20% loss in the stock market, you shouldn’t be in stocks.”

 Bob Farrell: Don’t join the herd

“The public buys the most at the top and the least at the bottom.” And, “When all the experts and forecasts agree – something else is going to happen.”

Jeremy Grantham: Recognise your advantage over professionals

“By far the biggest problem for professionals in investing is dealing with career and business risk: protecting your own job as an agent.

The second curse of professional investing is over-management caused by the need to be seen to be busy, to be earning your keep.

The individual is far better-positioned to wait patiently for the right pitch while paying no regard to what others are doing, which is almost impossible for professionals.”

 John Templeton: Don’t forget about taxes

“For all long-term investors, there is only one objective – maximum total real return after taxes.”

Barton Biggs: There are no relationships or equations that always work

“Quantitatively based solutions and asset allocation equations invariably fail as they are designed to capture what would have worked in the previous cycle whereas the next one remains a riddle wrapped in an enigma.”

Benjamin Graham: Beware of forecasts

“It is absurd to think that the general public can ever make money out of market forecasts.”

Philip Fisher: Know the value of your investments

“The stock market is filled with individuals who know the price of everything, but the value of nothing.”

Warren Buffett: Be greedy when others are fearful 

“Investors should remember that excitement and expenses are their enemies. And if they insist on trying to time their participation in equities, they should try to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful.”

Ken Fisher: Keep history in mind

“You can’t develop a portfolio strategy around endless possibilities. You wouldn’t even get out of bed if you considered everything that could possibly happen….. you can use history as one tool for shaping reasonable probabilities.

Then, you look at the world of economic, sentiment and political drivers to determine what’s most likely to happen—while always knowing you can be and will be wrong a lot.”

Charles Ellis: Invest for the long run

“The average long-term experience in investing is never surprising, but the short term experience is always surprising. We now know to focus not on rate of return, but on the informed management of risk”

Isaac Newton: Markets are irrational

“I can calculate the movement of stars, but not the madness of men.”

Mark Twain: We can learn from the past

“History does not repeat itself but it does rhyme.”