Kevin Duffy on amateur hour at the casino (2021)

Christoph Gisiger: What's your general advice for investors who want to invest their money in a reasonable and prudent way in this challenging environment? 

Kevin Duffy: If you want to live off the grid and live off of fruits, berries or coconuts, that’s one thing. But if you want to accumulate wealth or protect it, you’re in the investment game. You don’t have a choice. So you have to ask yourself: Who are your competitors out there? First of all, I don’t want to compete in the short-term trading arena with high frequency traders like Ken Griffin, the CEO of Citadel. That’s like competing against Tiger Woods on the golf course. The reason why guys like Griffin are doing so well is because you have a bunch of amateurs trying to compete with them.

~ Kevin Duffy, "The Next Bear Market Has Already Started," The Market/NZZ, July 1, 2021

After the GameStop short squeeze, Andrew Ross Sorkin asks Ken Griffin if the markets are "fair"

Sorkin: Let me ask you a maybe more meta question about all of this, which is, do you believe that the markets unto themselves are completely fair and when I, when I say fair, do you believe that my mother has the same opportunity to make money in the market, as you do?

Griffin: It all comes down to a matter of horizon and strategy.  It’s like asking if I went and play golf this weekend with Tiger Woods, would I win.  Of course not.  But there are various ways to compete with Tiger Woods off a golf course and do very well.  I’m not gonna play him on his game, on his course.  Your grandmother might be very aware of a change in technology or otherwise that will impact our economy.  She might look at the car you drive five years and go, hmm, Andrew bought a Tesla.  And I think EVs (electric vehicles) are the future of America and I’m going to buy Tesla stock.  And if she bought Tesla stock five years ago, she would have made a lot more money than we made at Citadel.  So, I never underestimate the skill of the American retail investor at understanding emerging trends, where real wealth is created and their ability to take advantage of that wealth transformation.

~ Ken Griffin, "Citadel Founder & CEO Ken Griffin Speaks with CNBC’s 'Squawk Box' Today," CNBC, February 19, 2021

Citadel's Ken Griffin on market sentiment

I have never seen a market as full of panic as I've seen it in the past seven or eight weeks.

Ken Griffin, founder, Citadel Investment Group, "Citadel's Griffin says firm will change amid turmoil," MarketWatch, October 27, 2008

Despite big losses from Citadel's main hedge fund this year, Griffin said that the recent turmoil has created the best opportunities he's seen since he started trading roughly 20 years ago:
"We're very excited about the positions in our portfolio in the months and years ahead."

(Citadel's largest hedge fund, known as Kensington/Wellington, fell 35% this year, through Oct. 17, according to Chief Operating Officer Gerald Beeson.)