He will risk half his fortune in the stock market with less reflection that he devotes to the selection of a medium-priced automobile.

To anticipate the market is to gamble. To be patient and react only when the market gives the signal is to speculate.

If I learned all this so slowly it was because I learned by my mistakes, and some time always elapses between making a mistake and realizing it, and more time between realizing it and exactly determining it.

I did precisely the wrong thing. The cotton showed me a loss and I kept it. The wheat showed me a profit and I sold it out. Of all the speculative blunders there are few greater than trying to average a losing game. Always sell what shows you a loss and keep what shows you a profit.

A man must study general conditions, to seize them so as to be able to anticipate probabilities.

If somebody had told me my method would not work I nevertheless would have tried it out to make sure for myself, for when I am wrong only one thing convinces me of it, and that is, to lose money. And I am only right when I make money. That is speculating.

Most people, whether bull or bear, when they are right, are right for the wrong reason, in my opinion.