In the 1950s and 1960s, the heroes were the long-term investors; today the heroes are the wise guys.

Just as outright euphoria is often a sign of a market top, fear is for sure a sign of a market bottom. Time and time again, in every market cycle I have witnessed, the extremes of emotion always appear, even among experienced investors. When the world wants to buy only treasury bills, you can almost close your eys and get long stocks.

Part of my attraction to ancient art is that there is an element of risk, of speculation.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the heroes were the long-term investors; today the heroes are the wise guys.

The hardest thing over the years has been having the courage to go against the dominant wisdom of the time to have a view that is at variance with the present consensus and bet that view. The hard part is that the investor must measure himself not by his own perceptions of his performance, but by the objective measure of the market. The market has its own reality. In an immediate emotional sense the market is always right so if you take a variant point of view you will always be bombarded for some time by conventional wisdom as expressed by the market.

A good trader has to have three things: a chronic inability to accept things at face value, to feel continuously unsettled, and to have humility.

The hardest thing over the years has been having the courage to go against the dominant wisdom of the time, to have a view that is at variance with the present consensus and bet that view.