Never invest in any idea you can't illustrate with a crayon
Peter LynchRead
You shouldn't just pick a stock - you should do your homework.
Interpretation
Thorough research is essential before making investment decisions.
This quote emphasizes the importance of conducting proper analysis and due diligence when selecting stocks for investment. It suggests that investing should not be a casual decision, but rather a well-informed action based on comprehensive knowledge of the companies and the market.
In practice
This quote is perfect for a seminar on investing where the importance of research will be discussed.
Never invest in any idea you can't illustrate with a crayon
The basic story remains simple and never-ending. Stocks aren't lottery tickets. There's a company attached to every share.
The junior high schools and high schools of America have forgotten to teach one of the most important courses of all. Investing.
All the math you need in the stock market you get in the fourth grade.
You can find good reasons to scuttle your equities in every morning paper and on every broadcast of the nightly news.
Just because you buy a stock and it goes up does not mean you are right. Just because you buy a stock and it goes down does not mean you are wrong.
When it comes to portfolios, my personal advice is for anyone who can, put money into forestry or farmland. Long term, you would probably never come near their returns in the stock market. In the world that I see, land is golden.
Everyone has the idea of owning good companies. The problem is that they have high prices in relations to assets and earnings, and that takes all of the fun out of the game.
The (stock) market is there only as a reference point to see if anybody is offering to do anything foolish. When we invest in stocks, we invest in businesses.
When an investor focuses on short-term investments, he or she is observing the variability of the portfolio, not the returns - in short, being fooled by randomness.
I'm a big believer in investing for the long term, and the decisions you make shouldn't be made if the economy is good or bad at a specific time.
Observation over many years has taught us that the chief losses to investors come from the purchase of low-quality securities at times of good business conditions. The purchasers view the good current earnings as equivalent to 'earning power' and assume that prosperity is equivalent to safety.
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