A good starting point [in the measurement of investment risk] is the preservation and enhancement of your purchasing power in real terms.

Experience teaches us that when "everyone" comes to the same conclusion, that conclusion is just about always wrong.

I buy stocks when they are battered. I am strict with my discipline. I always buy stocks with low price-earnings ratios, low price-to-book value ratios and higher-than-average yield. Academic studies have shown that a strategy of buying out-of-favor stocks with low P/E, price-to-book and price-to-cash flow ratios outperforms the market pretty consistently over long periods of time.

History constantly reminds us that in an uncertain world there is no visibility of prospects. Future earnings cannot be predicted with accuracy.

Patience is a crucial but rare investment commodity.

Investors repeatedly jump ship on a good strategy just because it hasn't worked so well lately, and, almost invariably, abandon it at precisely the wrong time.

I paraphrase Lord Rothschild: ‘The time to buy is when there's blood on the streets.'