“Investor demand for distressed property has been healthy, as rents rise to levels that can cover investors' costs while they wait for properties to appreciate. Giving investors a small tax break should further juice up demand, supporting prices for distressed homes and the market in general.” GivingShouldHas BeensHomeWaitingLevelsBreakHealthyCostDemandTaxesAppreciatePropertyInvestorsJuiceGiving InTax Breaks Author:Mark Zandi
“The majority of unskilled investors stubbornly hold onto their losses when the losses are small and reasonable. They could get out cheaply, but being emotionally involved and human, they keep waiting and hoping until their loss gets much bigger and costs them dearly.” HumansWaitingLossInvolvedCostBiggerMajorityReasonableInvestorsWaiting And Hoping Author:William O'Neil
“A price decline is of no real importance to the bona fide investor unless it is either very substantial say, more than a third from cost or unless it reflects a known deterioration of consequence in the company's position. In a well-defined bear market many sound common stocks sell temporarily at extraordinary low prices. It is possible that the investor may then have a paper loss of fully 50 per cent on some of his holdings, without any convincing indication that the underlying values have been permanently affected.” WellsMayHas BeensRealValuesSoundLossCommonCompanyKnownPositionBearsCostPaperLowsConsequenceThirdsImportanceSellsExtraordinaryDefinedAffectedInvestorsDeclineCentsConvincingIndicationDeterioration Author:Benjamin Graham
“Full service brokers, in this day and age of low cost mutual funds and discount brokers, are really nothing more than machines for ripping off retail investors.” AgeCostLowsMachinesFundMutualThis DayInvestorsRetailDiscountsBrokersMutual Fund Author:Joel Spolsky
“The Treasury plan is a disgrace: a bailout of reckless bankers, lenders and investors that provides little direct debt relief to borrowers and financially stressed households and that will come at a very high cost to the US taxpayer. And the plan does nothing to resolve the severe stress in money markets and interbank markets that are now close to a systemic meltdown.” LittlesDoePlansCostDirectStressDebtReliefResolveInvestorsHouseholdSevereDisgraceRecklessTaxpayersBankersStressedTreasuryLendersBailoutsMeltdownsBorrowers Author:Nouriel Roubini
“Market-cap based indexing will never be driven from its deserved perch as core and deserved king of the investment world. It is what we should all own in theory and it has delivered low-cost equity returns to a great mass of investors... the now and forever king-of-the-hill.” WorldShouldForeverTheoryReturnKingsCostMassLowsInvestmentInvestingDrivenCoreHillsInvestorsEquityCapsIndexing Author:Cliff Asness
“Even after I had just done Twilight, which made $400 million at the worldwide box office, I could not get financing for three or four projects that I really loved and I thought people would love because they didn't fit some studio or investor's model of thinking, "This will definitely make money." It's a business and a film does potentially cost millions of dollars, and they have to think that they're going to get their money back somehow.” PeopleThinkingDoeMadeDoneFilmThreeLove IsMillionsFourFitCostOfficeProjectsModelsDollarsBoxesStudiosMaking MoneyInvestorsTwilightFinancingBox Office Author:Catherine Hardwicke
“Investors frequently benefit from making decisions with less than perfect knowledge and are well rewarded for bearing the risk of uncertainty. The time other investors spend delving into the last unanswered detail may cost them the chance to buy into situations at prices so low they offer a margin of safety despite the incomplete information” WellsMayLastsChanceDecisionPerfectSituationRiskInformationCostOffersBenefitsLowsSafetyDetailsDespiteUncertaintyInvestorsMarginsIncompleteMaking DecisionsUnansweredDelvingIncomplete Information Author:Seth Klarman
“I think a very good system in a world with a lot of passive investors is one in which there are at least a few entrepreneurial investors, prepared to say what they think, prepared to propose a change in management, change in strategy, change in cost structure, capital structure.” ThinkingWorldCostManagementStrategyStructurePreparedVery GoodInvestorsPassiveProposeEntrepreneurial Author:Bill Ackman
“A global financial cabal engineered a fraudulent housing and debt bubble [2008], illegally shifted vast amounts of capital out of the US; and used 'privatization' as a form of piracy - a pretext to move government assets to private investors at below-market prices and then shift private liabilities back to government at no cost to the private liability holder Clearly, there was a global financial coup d'etat underway.” GovernmentMovingFormUsedAmountCostFinancialDebtAssetsInvestorsBubblesHousingPretextLiabilityPiracyCoupsPrivatizationCabal Author:Catherine Austin Fitts
“J.P. Morgan once had a friend who was so worried about his stock holdings that he could not sleep at night. The friend asked, 'What should I do about my stocks?' Morgan replied, 'Sell down to your sleeping point' Every investor must decide the trade-off he or she is willing to make between eating well and sleeping well. High investment rewards can only be achieved at the cost of substantial risk-taking. So what is your sleeping point? Finding the answer to this question is one of the most important investment steps you must take.” ShouldWellsImportantNightSleepAnswersStepsRiskWillingCostFindingsEatingTradeSellsInvestmentRewardsWorriedInvestorsShould IRisk-takingTrade OffsEating Well Author:Burton Malkiel
“The government - the ultimate short-term-oriented player - cannot withstand much pain in the economy or the financial markets. Bailouts and rescues are likely to occur, though not with sufficient predictability for investors to comfortably take advantage. The government will take enormous risks in such interventions, especially if the expenses can be conveniently deferred to the future. Some of the price-tag is in the form of back- stops and guarantees, whose cost is almost impossible to determine.” IfsGovernmentPainFormTermEconomyPlayerImpossibleRiskCostAdvantageUltimateFinancialDetermineEnormousSufficientGuaranteesExpensesInvestorsRescueInterventionShort TermTagFinancial MarketsPredictabilityPrice TagBailouts Author:Seth Klarman
“The government can always rescue the markets or interfere with contract law whenever it deems convenient with little or no apparent cost. (Investors believe this now and, worse still, the government believes it as well. We are probably doomed to a lasting legacy of government tampering with financial markets and the economy, which is likely to create the mother of all moral hazards. The government is blissfully unaware of the wisdom of Friedrich Hayek: "The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.")” KnowsMenBelieveWellsLittlesStillsGovernmentLawMotherMoralEconomyImagineDesignCostEconomicsTasksFinancialCuriousLegacyLastingContractsInvestorsRescueInterfereDoomedConvenientHazardsFinancial MarketsHayekFriedrich HayekLasting LegacyMoral Hazard Author:Seth Klarman
“All the equity investors, in total, will surely bear a performance disadvantage per annum equal to the total croupiers' costs they have jointly elected to bear. This is an inescapable fact of life. And it is also inescapable that exactly half of the investors will get a result below the median result after the croupiers' take, which median result may well be somewhere between unexciting and lousy.” WellsMayFactsResultsHalfBearsCostEqualPerformancesInvestorsEquityDisadvantagesFacts Of LifeMedian Author:Charlie Munger
“A low-cost index fund is the most sensible equity investment for the great majority of investors. My mentor, Ben Graham, took this position many years ago, and everything I have seen since convinces me of its truth.” YearsPositionCostLowsYears AgoMajorityInvestmentConvinceFundInvestorsSensibleMentorEquityIndex Funds Author:Warren Buffett
“Now, grosses are listed in the newspapers and on television like it's a sporting event. It's ridiculous, because when you're watching a movie, unless you're an investor in the movie or a stockholder in the studio, what do you care how much it's grossing or how much it cost or any of that stuff?” CareStuffEventsTelevisionCostStudiosRidiculousNewspapersInvestorsSporting EventsDo You Care Author:Curtis Hanson