William J. Bernstein Quotes

While enthusiasm may be necessary for great accomplishments elsewhere, on Wall Street it almost invariably leads to disaster

In the world of money and investing, you must learn to control your emotions.

Success in investing doesn't correlate with I.Q. once you're above the level of 25. Once you have ordinary intelligence, what you need is the temperament to control the urges that get other people into trouble in investing.

Men who can both be right and sit tight are uncommon. I found it one of the hardest things to learn. But it is only after a stock operator has firmly grasped this that he can make big money.

Investing requires qualities of temperament way more than it requires qualities of intellect.

No statement is more true and better applicable to Wall Street than the famous warning of Santayana: "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it".

It is no difficult trick to bring a great deal of energy, study, and native ability into Wall Street and to end up with losses instead of profits. These virtues, if channeled in the wrong directions, become indistinguishable from handicaps.

People who invest make money for themselves; people who speculate make money for their brokers. And that, in turn, is why Wall Street perennially downplays the durable virtues of investing and hypes the gaudy appeal of speculation.

One of the funny things about the stock market is that every time one person buys, another sells, and both think they are astute.

Macro-trading requires a high degree of skill, focus and repetition. Life events, such as birth, divorce, death of a loved one and other emotional highs and lows are obstacles to success in this specific field of finance.

I make money using my brains and lose money listening to my heart. But in the long run my books balance pretty well.

A second reason why science cannot replace judgement is the behavior of financial markets.

One thing on psychology, which we've always known, is that every investor says they're long-term - and they are until the market takes a hit.

For most people, attaining the intellectual clarity and emotional detachment that investing requires is tough.

When it comes to investing, you are your own worst enemy.

Trading is very competitive and you have to be able to handle getting your butt kicked.

I've always wanted to invest. That's why I started working on Wall Street in the first place, back in 1986 when I went through the Salomon Brothers training program.

The three traits speculators must learn to manage within themselves are confidence, fear, and aggressiveness.

The hardest trader I've ever run against.

I don’t know why the Stock Market does what it does.

Looking at the stock market to understand the economy is like studying a manic depressive in order to understand human nature.

All market response results from a reduction of uncertainty.

Trading demands total concentration and the ability to do several things at once while instantly recalling trading prices from the day, or week, before.

The older I get, the more I realize the importance of maintaining an even temperament - not getting too emotional, focusing on the task at hand. You don't want to make a business deal based on your emotions.

The problem with most people who play the market is that they are not flexible.