The individual is far better-positioned to wait patiently for the right pitch while paying no regard to what others are doing, which is almost impossible for professionals.

There is no single theory that is used in economics that considers the finite nature of resources. It's shocking.

Ridiculous as our market volatility might seem to an intelligent Martian, it is our reality and everyone loves to trot out the 'quote' attributed to Keynes (but never documented): 'The market can stay irrational longer than the investor can stay solvent.' For us agents, he might better have said 'The market can stay irrational longer than the client can stay patient.'

Volatility is a symptom that people have no idea of the underlying value-that they have stopped playing the asset game. They're not buying because it's a company with certain attributes. They're buying because the price is rising. People are playing games not related to any concept at all of what the long-term value of the enterprise is. And they know it.

If stocks are attractive and you don't buy, you don't just look like an idiot, you are an idiot.

At least us old men remember what a real bear market is like, and the young men haven't got a clue.

By background I'm both a Quaker and a Yorkshireman, which I like to call double jeopardy.