Always buy your straw hats in the Winter

Nothing important on Wall Street can be counted on to occur exactly in the same way as it happened before.

An investor calculates what a stock is worth, based on the value of its businesses.

The chief losses to investors come from the purchase of low-quality securities at times of favorable business conditions.

In an ideal world, the intelligent investor would hold stocks only when they are cheap and sell them when they become overpriced, then duck into the bunker of bonds and cash until stocks again become cheap enough to buy.

The investor should be aware that even though safety of its principal and interest may be unquestioned, a long term bond could vary widely in market price in response to changes in interest rates.

The essence of investment management is the management of risks, not the management of returns.