Investing in stocks is an art, not a science, and people who've been trained to rigidly quantify everything have a big disadvantage.

During the Gold Rush, most would-be miners lost money, but people who sold them picks, shovels, tents and blue-jeans (Levi Strauss) made a nice profit.

You shouldn't just pick a stock - you should do your homework.

The biggest winners are surprises to me, and takeovers are even more surprising. It takes years, not months, to produce big results.

The worst thing you can do is invest in companies you know nothing about. Unfortunately, buying stocks on ignorance is still a popular American pastime.

My method for picking stocks has never changed. When businesses go from crappy to semicrappy, there's money to be made.

Know what you own, and know why you own it.