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In the financial markets, hindsight is forever 20/20, but foresight is legally blind. And thus, for most investors, market timing is a practical and emotional impossibility.

Benjamin Graham

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Benjamin Graham
Age: 82 †
Born: 1894
Born: May 8
Died: 1976
Died: September 21
Economist
Financier
Investor
University Teacher
Writer
London
England
Blind
Markets
Emotional
Investors
Forever
Practicals
Practical
Legally
Investing
Foresight
Thus
Hindsight
Market
Impossibility
Financial
Timing

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Wall Street has a few prudent principles the trouble is that they are always forgotten when they are most needed.
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Always remember that market quotations are there for convenience, either to be taken advantage of or to be ignored.
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At heart, uncertainty and investing are synonyms.
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The stock market resembles a huge laundry in which institutions take in large blocks of each others washing ... without rhyme or reason.
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The investor has a right to expect good results to flow from a consistent and courageous application of the principle of buying after the market has declined substantially and selling after it has had a spectacular rise. But he cannot expect to reduce this principle to a simple and foolproof formula, with profits guaranteed and no anxious periods.
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An intelligent investor gets satisfaction from the thought that his operations are exactly opposite to those of the crowd.
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Price statistics show clearly that instability in raw-material prices is a prime cause of instability of other prices.
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An investor calculates what a stock is worth, based on the value of its businesses.
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The correct attitude of the security analyst toward the stock market might well be that of a man toward his wife. He shouldn't pay too much attention to what the lady says, but he can't afford to ignore it entirely. That is pretty much the position that most of us find ourselves vis-à-vis the stock market.
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A stock is not just a ticker symbol or an electronic blip it is an ownership interest in an actual business, with an underlying value that does not depend on its share price.
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The essence of investment management is the management of risks, not the management of returns.
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The ideal form of common stock analysis leads to a valuation of the issue which can be compared with the current price to determine whether or not the security is an attractive purchase.
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The sillier the market's behavior, the greater the opportunity for the business like investor.
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An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis, promises safety of principal and an adequate return.
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Though business conditions may change, corporations and securities may change, and financial institutions and regulations may change, human nature remains the same. Thus the important and difficult part of sound investment, which hinges upon the investor's own temperament and attitude, is not much affected by the passing years.
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I am more and more impressed with the possibilities of history's repeating itself on many different counts. You don't get very far in Wall Street with the simple, convenient conclusion that a given level of prices is not too high.
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Price fluctuations have only one significant meaning for the true investor. They provide him with an opportunity to buy wisely when prices fall sharply and to sell wisely when they advance a great deal.
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Stocks can be dynamite.
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We define a bargain issue as one which, on the basis of facts established by analysis, appears to be worth considerably more that it is selling for.
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