Warren Buffett Stock Quotes & Sayings

Buy into a company because you want to own it, not because you want the stock to go up. — Warren Buffett

I have an 800 [freephone] number now that I call if I get the urge to buy an airline stock. I call at two in the morning and I say: "My name is Warren and I'm an aeroholic." And then they talk me down. — Warren Buffett

Great investment opportunities come around when excellent companies are surrounded by unusual circumstances that cause the stock to be misappraised. — Warren Buffett

A prediction about the direction of the stock market tells you nothing about where stocks are headed, but a whole lot about the person doing the predicting. — Warren Buffett

The attitude of our managers vividly contrasts with that of the young man who married a tycoon's only child, a decidedly homely and dull lass. Relieved, the father called in his new son- in-law after the wedding and began to discuss the future:
Son, you're the boy I always wanted and never had. Here's a stock certificate for 50% of the company. You're my equal partner from now on.'
Thanks, dad.'
Now, what would you like to run? How about sales?'
I'm afraid I couldn't sell water to a man crawling in the Sahara.'
Well then, how about heading human relations?'
I really don't care for people.'
No problem, we have lots of other spots in the business. What would you like to do?'
Actually, nothing appeals to me. Why don't you just buy me out? — Warren Buffett

A hyperactive stock market is the pickpocket of enterprise. — Warren Buffett

If you are not willing to own a stock for 10 years, do not even think about owning it for 10 minutes. — Warren Buffett

It takes 150 years to build an investment bank and only five minutes to convince you to sell me preferred stock in it at a 10% interest rate. — Warren Buffett

The real fortunes in this country have been made by people who have been right about the business they invested in, and not right about the timing of the stock market. — Warren Buffett

Anything can happen in stock markets and you ought to conduct your affairs so that if the most extraordinary events happen, that you're still around to play the next day. — Warren Buffett

It is obvious that the performance of a stock last year or last month is no reason, per se, to either own it or to not own it now. It is obvious that an inability to "get even" in a security that has declined is of no importance. It is obvious that the inner warm glow that results from having held a winner last year is of no importance in making a decision as to whether it belongs in an optimum portfolio this year. — Warren Buffett

With each investment you make, you should have the courage and the conviction to place at least ten per cent of your net worth in that stock — Warren Buffett

We've long felt that the only value of stock forecasters is to make fortune tellers look good. Even now, Charlie and I continue to believe that short-term market forecasts are poison and should be kept locked up in a safe place, away from children and also from grown-ups who behave in the market like children. — Warren Buffett

The time to buy stocks is consistently over time. You should never buy your investments with the idea, 'I have to get a certain return.' You should look at the best return possible and learn to live with that. But you should not try to make your investments earn what you feel you need. It doesn't work that way. The stock doesn't know you own it. — Warren Buffett

Remember that the stock market is manic-depressive. — Warren Buffett

We do not have, nor have had, and never will have an opinion about where the stock market, interest rates, or business activity will be a year from now. — Warren Buffett

Many stock options in the corporate world have worked in exactly that fashion: they have gained in value simply because management retained earnings, not because it did well with the capital in its hands. — Warren Buffett

I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years. — Warren Buffett

Who would think of buying or selling a private business because of someone's guess on the stock market? The availability of a quotation for your business interest (stock) should always be an asset to be utilized if desired. If it gets silly enough in either direction, you take advantage of it. Its availability should never be turned into a livability whereby its periodic aberrations in turn formulate your judgements. — Warren Buffett

If you aren't willing to own a stock for ten years, don't even think about owning it for ten minutes. Put together a portfolio of companies whose aggregate earnings march upward over the years, and so also will the portfolio's market value. — Warren Buffett

Charlie and I believe our four criteria are essential if directors are to do their job - which, by law, is to faithfully represent owners. Yet these criteria are usually ignored. Instead, consultants and CEOs seeking board candidates will often say, "We're looking for a woman," or "a Hispanic," or "someone from abroad," or what have you. It sometimes sounds as if the mission is to stock Noah's ark. Over the years I've been queried many times about potential directors and have yet to hear anyone ask, "Does he think like an intelligent owner?" The questions I instead — Warren Buffett

I always say that in investing you want to buy stock in a company that has a business that's so good that an idiot can run it, because sooner or later one will. We have a country like that. — Warren Buffett

I don't think it would be crazy to have a model or an entity model on the Reconstruction Finance Corp. That goes back to 1932, although it was really implemented in '33 under Jesse Jones, and it invested in mostly banks initially and preferred stock and that sort of thing. — Howard Warren Buffett

The dumbest reason in the world to buy a stock is because it's going up. — Warren Buffett

I bought a company in the mid-'90s called Dexter Shoe and paid $400 million for it. And it went to zero. And I gave about $400 million worth of Berkshire stock, which is probably now worth $400 billion. But I've made lots of dumb decisions. That's part of the game. — Warren Buffett

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. — Warren Buffett

There are three important principles to Graham's approach. [The first is to look at stocks as fractional shares of a business, which] gives you an entirely different view than most people who are in the market. [The second principle is the margin-of-safety concept, which] gives you the competitive advantage. [The third is having a true investor's attitude toward the stock market, which] if you have that attitude, you start out ahead of 99 percent of all the people who are operating in the stock market - it's an enormous advantage. — Warren Buffett

There is one thing of which I can assure you. If good performance of the fund is even a minor objective, any portfolio encompassing one hundred stocks (whether the manager is handling one thousand dollars or one billion dollars) is not being operated logically. The addition of the one hundredth stock simply can't reduce the potential variance in portfolio performance sufficiently to compensate for the negative effect its inclusion has on the overall portfolio expectation. — Warren Buffett

I make no effort to predict the course of general business or the stock market. Period. However, currently there are practices snowballing in the security markets and business world which, while devoid of short term predictive value, bother me as to possible long term consequences. — Warren Buffett

As far as you are concerned, the stock market does not exist. Ignore it. — Warren Buffett

Investors, of course, can, by their own behavior make stock ownership highly risky. And many do. Active trading, attempts to "time" market movements, inadequate diversification, the payment of high and unnecessary fees to managers and advisors, and the use of borrowed money can destroy the decent returns that a life-long owner of equities would otherwise enjoy. Indeed, borrowed money has no place in the investor's tool kit. — Warren Buffett

Our stay-put behavior reflects our view that the stock market serves as a relocation center at which money is moved from the active to the patient. — Warren Buffett

My favorite time frame for holding a stock is forever. — Warren Buffett

[W]e think the very term 'value investing' is redundant. What is 'investing' if it is not the act of seeking value at least sufficient to justify the amount paid? Consciously paying more for a stock than its calculated value
in the hope that it can soon be sold for a still-higher price
should be labeled speculation (which is neither illegal, immoral nor
in our view
financially fattening). — Warren Buffett

You should be unconcerned about short-term price action when you own the securities directly, just as you were unconcerned when you owned them indirectly through BPL. I think about them as businesses, not "stocks", and if the business does all right over the long term, so will the stock. — Warren Buffett

A stock doesn't know that you own it. — Warren Buffett

If a business does well, the stock eventually follows. — Warren Buffett

I think any statement about stock prices is always suspect unless it's made by Warren Buffett. — Bill Gates

Stop trying to predict the direction of the stock market, the economy or elections. — Warren Buffett

The stock market is a wonderfully efficient mechanism for transferring wealth from the impatient to the patient. — Warren Buffett

You pay a very high price in the stock market for a cheery consensus. — Warren Buffett

The Stock Market is designed to transfer money from the Active to the Patient. — Warren Buffett

It's got to be the best intellectual exercise out there. You're seeing through new situations every ten minutes. In the stock market you don't base your decisions on what the market is doing, but on what you think is rational. Bridge is about weighing gain/loss ratios. You're doing calculations all the time. — Warren Buffett

We need a moderately-priced stock market ... The market, like the Lord, helps those who help themselves. But, unlike the Lord, the market does not forgive those who know not what they do. For the investor, a too-high purchase price for the stock of an excellent company can undo the effects of a subsequent decade of favorable business developments. — Warren Buffett

I am not in the business of predicting general stock market of business fluctuations. If you think I can do this, or think it is essential to an investment program, you should not be in the partnership. — Warren Buffett

Actually, I bought one share of Warren Buffett's stock, probably 35 years ago, in order to read his letters. — Sam Wyly

We have long felt that the only value of stock forecasters is to make fortune-tellers look good. — Warren Buffett

When Berkshire buys common stock, we approach the transaction as if we were buying into a private business. — Warren Buffett

Buy a stock the way you would buy a house. Understand and like it such that you'd be content to own it in the absence of any market. — Warren Buffett

Consciously paying more for a stock than its calculated value - in the hope that it can soon be sold for a still-higher price - should be labelled speculation — Warren Buffett

If, when making a stock investment, you're not considering holding it at least ten years, don't waste more than ten minutes considering it. — Warren Buffett

The [stock] market,like the Lord, helps those who help themselves. But, unlike the Lord, the market does not forgive those who know not what they do. — Warren Buffett

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. — Warren Buffett

Students need only two well-taught courses - How to Value a Business, and How to Think About Market Prices. Your goal as an investor should simply be to purchase, at a rational price, a part interest in an easily-understandable business whose earnings are virtually certain to be materially higher five, ten and twenty years from now. Over time, you will find only a few companies that meet these standards - so when you see one that qualifies, you should buy a meaningful amount of stock. You must also resist the temptation to stray from your guidelines: If you aren't willing to own a stock for ten years, don't even think about owning it for ten minutes. Put together a portfolio of companies whose aggregate earnings march upward over the years, and so also will the portfolio's market value. Though it's seldom recognized, this is the exact approach — Warren Buffett

If you aren't thinking about owning a stock for ten years, don't even think about owning it for ten minutes. — Warren Buffett

The great personal fortunes in the country weren't built on a portfolio of fifty companies. They were built by someone who identified one wonderful business. With each investment you make, you should have the courage and the conviction to place at least 10% of your net worth in that stock. — Warren Buffett

What could be more advantageous in an intellectual contest - whether it be chess, bridge, or stock selection - than to have opponents who have been taught that thinking is a waste of energy? — Warren Buffett

Ignore the stock market, ignore the economy, and buy a business you understand. — Warren Buffett