Thursday, July 23, 2015

Today's Investing for Survival

12 things I learned from David Tepper: #5

5. “This company looks cheap, that company looks cheap, but the overall economy could completely screw it up. The key is to wait. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to do nothing.”

People have a tendency to believe there is a prize for hyperactivity. Not only is there not a prize but hyperactivity instead imposes significant penalties. Warren Buffett likes to say there are no “called strikes” in investing. For this reason, sometimes sitting on your hands can be the very best thing you can do as an investor. Patience is key. But so is aggression when the time is right, as was the case, for example, in 2009. The combination of being patient and yet sometimes aggressive seems odd for many people, but it is the right approach. When bargains do appear it is not only a rare event, but a fleeting event. If you snooze when a bargain appears, you lose. Fortune favors the person who is patient, brave, aggressive and swift to act when the time is right. Times like March of 2009 appear rarely in a lifetime for an investor.

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