Warren Buffett Quotes

I buy when other people are selling.

As a bull market turns into a bear market, the new pros turn into optimists, hoping and praying the bear market will become a bull and save them. But as the market remains bearish, the optimists become pessimists, quit the profession, and return to their day jobs. This is when the real professional investors re-enter the market.

We have usually made our best purchases when apprehensions about some macro event were at a peak. Fear is the foe of the faddist, but the friend of the fundamentalist.

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.

Be fearful when the markets get greedy, be greedy when the markets get fearful.

Invest at the point of maximum pessimism.

I'd rather buy something that is relatively depressed than something that is relatively high.

The wisest rule in investment is: when others are selling, buy. When others are buying, sell. Usually, of course, we do the opposite. When everyone else is buying, we assume they know something we don't, so we buy. Then people start selling, panic sets in, and we sell too.

When high-growth companies slow down, growth and momentum junkies often sell indiscriminately, which can create great opportunities for value investors. Just be careful not to anchor on the stock's previous price or earnings multiple, which are no longer relevant.

Buy when there's blood in the streets, even if the blood is your own.

Buy when everyone else is selling and hold until everyone else is buying. That's not just a catchy slogan. It's the very essence of successful investing.

Outperforming the majority of investors requires doing what they are not doing. Buying when others have despaired, and selling when they are full of hope, takes fortitude.

The intelligent investor is a realist who sells to optimists and buys from pessimists.

Most people get interested in stocks when everyone else is. The time to get interested is when no one else is. You can't buy what is popular and do well.

Be fearful when there is greed and be greedy when there is fear.

To buy when others are despondently selling and sell when others are greedily buying requires the greatest fortitude and pays the greatest reward.

I've learned there's a big difference between a long-focused value investor and a good short-seller. That difference is psychological and I think it falls into the realm of behavioral finance.

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

When investing, pessimism is your friend, euphoria the enemy.

Traditionally the investor has been the man with patience and the courage of his convictions who would buy when the harried or disheartened speculator was selling.

The entire pursuit of value investing requires you to see where the crowd is wrong so that you can profit from their misperceptions.

You want to be greedy when others are fearful.

Experience teaches that the time to buy stocks is when their price is unduly depressed by temporary adversity. In other words, they should be bought on a bargain basis or not at all.

An intelligent investor gets satisfaction from the thought that his operations are exactly opposite to those of the crowd.

Bull markets are born on pessimism, grown on skepticism, mature on optimism and die on euphoria. The time of maximum pessimism is the best time to buy, and the time of maximum optimism is the best time to sell.