Contrarian Approach Quotes

We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.

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.

Invest at the point of maximum pessimism.

We believe that almost all really good investment records will involve relatively little diversification. The basic idea that it was hard to find good investments and that you wanted to be in good investments, and therefore, you'd just find a few of them that you knew a lot about and concentrate on those seemed to me such an obviously good idea. And indeed, it's proven to be an obviously good idea. Yet 98% of the investing world doesn't follow it. That's been good for us.

A price drop in a good stock is only a tragedy if you sell at that price and never buy more. To me, a price drop is an opportunity to load up on bargains from among your worst performers and your laggards that show promise. If you can't convince yourself "When I'm down 25 percent, I'm a buyer" and banish forever the fatal thought "When I'm down 25 percent, I'm a seller," then you'll never make a decent profit in stocks.

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

Many an optimist has become rich simply by buying out a pessimist.

Always listen to experts. They will tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it.

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

Warren Buffett has said many times that people either get value investing in five minutes or they won't get it in five years. So, there is something in the human brain, that for some of us, makes all the difference in the world right away and the patience it requires is part of the wiring process.

The late 90s almost forced me to identify myself as a value investor, because I thought what everybody else was doing was insane.

A contrarian approach is just as foolish as a follow-the-crowd strategy. What's required is thinking rather than polling.

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

Whatever the majority of people is doing, under any given circumstances, if you do the exact opposite, you will probably never make another mistake as long as you live.

I don't like the fact that people are supposed to think horror movies have a way things should go. I always try to do the exact opposite of what people expect and want.

I buy when other people are selling.

To succeed as a contrarian you must recognize what the crowd believes, have concrete justification for why the majority is wrong, and have the patience and conviction to stick with what is, by definition, an unpopular bet.

The way to keep a cat is to try to chase it away.

We have been doing things that are contrary; the things that people tell us won't work from the beginning. In fact, the only way to get ahead is to find errors in conventional wisdom.

You want to be greedy when others are fearful.

We take the traditional value investor's process and just flip it around a little bit. The traditional value investor asks 'Is this cheap?' and then 'Why is it cheap?' We start by identifying a reason something might be mispriced, and then if we find a reason why something is likely mispriced, then we make a determination whether it's cheap.

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 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.

I create offbeat advice; I don't follow it. I rarely take third-party advice on my investments.

What's hot today isn't likely to be hot tomorrow. The stock market reverts to fundamental returns over the long run. Don't follow the herd.