Avoid hot stocks in hot industries.

Owning stocks is like having children - don't get involved with more than you can handle.

There's no use diversifying into unknown companies just for the sake of diversity. A foolish diversity is the hobgoblin of small investors. That said, it isn't safe to own just one stock, because in spite of your best efforts, the one you choose might be the victim of unforeseen circumstances. In small portfolios, I'd be comfortable owning between three and ten stocks.

More money is lost anticipating the changes in the overall stock market than any other way of investing.

Twenty years in this business convinces me that any normal person using the customary three percent of the brain can pick stocks just as well, if not better, than the average Wall Street expert.

There's a company behind every stock and a reason companies - and their stocks - perform the way they do.

In our society, it's been the men who've handled most of the finances, and the women who've stood by and watched men botch things up.