Barry Ritholtz Quotes

I seek individual investments that will allow me to target total portfolio returns of at least 20% annually after fees and expenses on an annual basis over a period of years, not months.

The average mutual fund holding period for equity or fixed income is only about three years. It's too short.

I'm a big believer in investing for the long term, and the decisions you make shouldn't be made if the economy is good or bad at a specific time.

It's critical to have a disciplined investing approach and stick with it.

You could lose hundreds or thousands one day on paper and gain it all back the next, and it has literally no effect on your immediate future, provided the money you have in the market is money you're investing for the long haul (meaning at least three to five years).

If your investing approach requires that you become Nostradamus to succeed, then you are destined to fail.

The thing to do with mutual funds is to buy a couple of decent ones, set up an investment plan and then never, ever think about them again, except maybe once a quarter or so when you take a peek at your statements to make sure that you have not accidentally been buying the Fidelity Peace-in-the-Middle-East fund.

It is important for investors to understand what they do and don't know. Learn to recognize that you cannot possibly know what is going to happen in the future, and any investment plan that is dependent on accurately forecasting where markets will be next year is doomed to failure.

What I'm trying to say is that for the average investor, what I would encourage them to do is to understand that there's inflation and growth. It can go higher and lower and to have four different portfolios essentially that make up your entire portfolio that gets you balanced.

In long term investments, you don't need day to day management.

My advice to the average investor in 1988 is to be patient and think long-term. It will take 18 months for confidence to get better and, in the meantime, this is absolutely no place for short-term money.

Having the opportunity to follow the market frequently gives you the opportunity to see if you need to reevaluate your portfolio. But reevaluating your portfolio shouldn't trigger a sell signal so frequently.

If you're 35, 45, or even 55 - you have a very long time horizon - 40 years or vastly more. That is you, and/or your spouse, are likely to live about that long, and you'll be investing the whole way.

You want less of the annoying nonsense that interferes with your portfolios and more of the significant data that allow you to become a less distracted, more purposeful investor.

The best argument for mutual funds is that they offer safety and diversification. But they don't necessarily offer safety and diversification.

One of the rules I've learned is that struggling to try and think your way into making an investment is usually the best way to not have a great outcome.

In the back of my mind was the nagging discussion: where do we take the portfolio? You can get rid of TV, fine, but then you are in lighting and in health, and those don't have a lot to do with each other.

We talk about long-term patient investing, and that idea that slow and steady does win the race, that time can be your best friend when it comes to investing. That's why we have a turtle as a logo at Ariel.

Investing is a probabilistic business. Every once in a while, it's sort of like you're throwing six-sided dice, and anything except a one or a two, you're doing well. Statistically speaking, you throw the dice enough times, you're going to throw a one or a two five times in a row, and you're going to look pretty foolish, right?

I don't think you should put all your money in one place. It must be invested in different investments.

If the fluctuations in your investment portfolio are reduced, the impact of emotions and behavior on your account is also reduced.

Always keep your portfolio and your risk at your own individual comfortable sleeping point.

Too many people say to their brokers, I can't deal with this. Take my money. Do what you want. That's the worst attitude you can have.

We don't manage money for anyone else. We bear responsibility only for our own risks.

There's a tendency to look at investments in isolation. Investors focus on the risk of individual securities.