Warren Buffett: "The stock market is a no-called-strike game"

The stock market is a no-called-strike game.  You don't have to swing at everything -- you can wait for your pitch.  The problem when you're a money manager is that your fans keep yelling, "Swing, you bum!"

~ Warren Buffett, 1999 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting, as quoted in The Tao of Warren Buffett by Mary Buffett and David Clark

MLB 2021 Home Run Derby

Warren Buffett on opportunity

Big opportunities in life have to be seized.  We don't do very many things, but when we get the chance to do something that's right and big, we've got to do it.  Do do it in a small scale is just as big a mistake as not doing it at all.  You've got to grab 'em when they come.

~ Warren Buffet, "How to invest for beginners" lecture, 5:00 mark, May 9, 2020

Henry Ford on helping people

The only thing you can give a man without hurting him is an opportunity. 

~ Henry Ford

Seth Klarman on Benjamin Graham

As the father of value investing, Benjamin Graham, advised in 1934, smart investors look to the market not as a guide for what to do, but as a creator of opportunity.

~ Seth Klarman

Thomas Edison on opportunity

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

~ Thomas Edison

Christopher Davis on volatility and investing

Volatility minus emotion equals opportunity.

~ Christopher Davis, "A Lesson in 'Value vs. Price'," Stansberry Investor Hour, December 17, 2020

James Altucher on the exodus from mega-cities and decentralization of opportunity

It's not like every city with 400,000 people are leaving.  Some cities, real estate is insane.  Real estate is going through the roof in some second and third tier cities.  People are buying houses sight unseen for 50% higher than listing price...  It's a scary trend, but the optimistic thing is that, for the first time ever, opportunity is now dispersed throughout the country.  It's decentralized.  It's no longer just in New York City, LA, San Francisco.  You could be a young person and find success anywhere now.  We all got comfortable communicating remotely and a lot of talented and skilled people are leaving the major cities, but particularly New York City, unfortunately.

~ James Altucher, "The Death Knell of the Urban Era," RealVision, 7:55 mark, September 17, 2020

Ronald Reagan on attitude

A pessimist is someone who complains about the noise when opportunity knocks.

~ President Ronald Reagan

Richard Branson on opportunity

If someone offers you an amazing opportunity and you're not sure you can do it, say yes - then learn how to do it later.

~ Richard Branson

Alexander Graham Bell on opportunity

When one door closes, another opens.  But we often look so long and so regretfully at the closed door that we cannot see the one that has opened for us.

~ Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell
1940

John Rogers on investing and opportunity

Long-term investment success is not about making little decisions.  It's the big decisions that matter.  These big decisions in periods of hyperoptimism or pessimism (like now) are what separate outstanding investment managers from the pack.  No player ever made it to the Baseball Hall of Fame for his distinguished bunting record.  Now is the time to swing for the fences, not recklessly or nervously, but in a studied, calm and controlled manner.

I will submit that there is a bit of luck involved here.  But as the chemist Louis Pasteur once said, "Chance favors only the prepared mind."  An investment manager's big decisions are not a coin toss; they come from years of relentless reading, studying those who have excelled and those who have fallen short, dissecting one's own successes and failures, networking with those who can shed new light on a stock or industry and teasing out contrarian points of view.

~ John W. Rogers Jr., "Swing For The Fences," Forbes, May 25, 2009

Nassim Taleb on profit, loss and opportunity

The characteristic feature of the loser is to bemoan, in general terms, mankind's flaws, biases, contradictions, and irrationality - without exploiting them for fun and profit. 

~ Nassim Taleb, The Bed of Procrustes, p. 12

Kevin Duffy on investing and opportunity

Investment management is simply capturing the arbitrage available between perception and reality. It is paramount to know both. The good news: the gap between the two has never been greater.

~ Kevin Duffy, Bearing Asset Management, March 2, 2010

John Templeton on preparation

For those properly prepared in advance, a bear market in stocks is not a calamity but an opportunity.

~ Sir John Templeton

Churchill on positive attitude

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

~ Sir Winston Churchill