Peter Lynch
The stock market really isn't a gamble, as long as you pick good companies that you think will do well, and not just because of the stock price.Collection: Thinking
There's no use diversifying into unknown companies just for the sake of diversity. A foolish diversity is the hobgoblin of small investors. That said, it isn't safe to own just one stock, because in spite of your best efforts, the one you choose might be the victim of unforeseen circumstances. In small portfolios, I'd be comfortable owning between three and ten stocks.Collection: Best Effort
Charts are great for predicting the past.Collection: Past
Stocks are a safe bet, but only if you stay invested long enough to ride out the corrections.Collection: Long
The simpler it is, the better I like it.Collection: Investing
As I look back on it now, it's obvious that studying history and philosophy was much better preparation for the stock market than, say, studying statistics.Collection: Philosophy
The Rule of 72 is useful in determining how fast money will grow. Take the annual return from any investment, expressed as a percentage, and divide it into 72. The result is the number of years it will take to double your money.Collection: Years
My method for picking stocks has never changed. When businesses go from crappy to semicrappy, there's money to be made.Collection: Never Change
I can't recall ever once having seen the name of a market timer on Forbes' annual list of the richest people in the world. If it were truly possible to predict corrections, you'd think somebody would have made billions by doing it.Collection: Thinking
You can't see the future through a rearview mirrorCollection: Mirrors
Long shots almost always miss the mark.Collection: Long
Invest in businesses any idiot could run, because someday one will.Collection: Running
During the Gold Rush, most would-be miners lost money, but people who sold them picks, shovels, tents and blue-jeans (Levi Strauss) made a nice profit.Collection: Nice
Everyone has the brainpower to make money in stocks. Not everyone has the stomach. If you are susceptible to selling everything in a panic, you ought to avoid stocks and mutual funds altogether.Collection: Investing
You have to let the big ones make up for your mistakes.Collection: Mistake
There is always something to worry about. Avoid weekend thinking and ignoring the latest dire predictions of the newscasters. Sell a stock because the company's fundamentals deteriorate, not because the sky is falling.Collection: Fall
Visiting stores and testing products is one of the critical elements of the analyst's job.Collection: Jobs
It's human nature to keep doing something as long as it's pleasurable and you can succeed at it, which is why the world population continues to double every 40 years.Collection: Years
Logic is the subject that has helped me most in picking stocks, if only because it taught me to identify the peculiar illogic of Wall Street. Actually Wall Street thinks just as the Greeks did. The early Greeks used to sit around for days and debate how many teeth a horse has. They thought they could figure it out just by sitting there, instead of checking the horse. A lot of investors sit around and debate whether a stock is going up, as if the financial muse will give them the answer, instead of checking the company.Collection: Horse
There's no shame in losing money on a stock. Everybody does it. What is shameful is to hold on to a stock, or worse, to buy more of it when the fundamentals are deteriorating.Collection: Doe
Owning stocks is like having children - don't get involved with more than you can handle.Collection: Children
If you can find a company that can get away with raising prices year after year without losing customers (an addictive product such as cigarettes fills the bill), you've got a terrific investment.Collection: Years
If you can follow only one bit of data, follow the earnings - assuming the company in question has earnings. I subscribe to the crusty notion that sooner or later earnings make or break an investment in equities. What the stock price does today, tomorrow, or next week is only a distraction.Collection: Next Week
I'm always fully invested. It's a great feeling to be caught with your pants up.Collection: Feelings
A stock market decline is as routine as a January blizzard in Colorado. If you're prepared, it can't hurt you. A decline is a great opportunity to pick up the bargains left behind by investors who are fleeing the storm in panic.Collection: Hurt
When management owns stock, then rewarding the shareholders becomes a first priority, whereas when management simply collects a paycheck, then increasing salaries becomes a first priority.Collection: Priorities
Bargains are the holy grail of the true stockpicker. The fact that 10 to 30 percent of our net worth is lost in a market sell-off is of little consequence. We see the latest correction not as a disaster but as an opportunity to acquire more shares at low prices. This is how great fortunes are made over time.Collection: Opportunity
Average investors can become experts in their own field and can pick winning stocks as effectively as Wall Street professionals by doing just a little research.Collection: Wall
It isn't the head but the stomach that determines the fate of the stockpicker.Collection: Fate
Searching for companies is like looking for grubs under rocks: if you turn over 10 rocks you'll likely find one grub; if you turn over 20 rocks you'll find two.Collection: Rocks
The typical big winner in the Lynch portfolio generally takes three to ten years to play out.Collection: Years
You shouldn't just pick a stock - you should do your homework.Collection: Homework
There's lots of stocks out there and all you need is a few of 'em. That's been my philosophy.Collection: Philosophy
The biggest winners are surprises to me, and takeovers are even more surprising. It takes years, not months, to produce big results.Collection: Years
I don't know anyone who said on their deathbed: 'Gee, I wish I'd spent more time at the office.'Collection: Office