William J. Bernstein Quotes

Market risk is like taking a plunge into a cool pool ... a lot of people are finding out right now what their risk tolerance is.

Do not put all your eggs in one basket.

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).

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

I'm not a money manager, but I can tell you what the conventional wisdom is. The younger you are, the more risk you can take on.

The last thing you want to do, unless it's a very unusual situation, is to invest money.

Investing is a business where you can look very silly for a long period of time before you are proven right.

My view is that one should diversify broadly across different fund investments. However, it's tough for investors to try to pick the appropriate risk level that they should manage their funds at. Having a personal adviser would be helpful.

I think it's a mistake to rely too much on any one economic factor. It's why investors try to spread their portfolio round.

Well, there's always risk in long-term investment.

I think it is crucial to diversify one's portfolio.

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

To put all of your eggs in one basket is silly.

Put all your eggs in one basket... the handle's going to break. Then all you've got is scrambled eggs.

Owning stocks is like having children - don't get involved with more than you can handle.

The greater the potential for reward in the value portfolio, the less risk there is.

Risk can be greatly reduced by concentrating on only a few holdings.

In the long run, a portfolio of well chosen stocks and/or equity mutual funds will always outperform a portfolio of bonds or a money-market account. In the long run, a portfolio of poorly chosen stocks won't outperform the money left under the mattress.

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

I had some airline stock, but the airlines tanked. I didn't have a lot of money in them, though.

Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.

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.

Do not buy the hype from Wall St. and the press that stocks always go up. There are long periods when stocks do nothing and other investments are better.

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.