The most important organ in the body as far as the stock market is concerned is the guts, not the head. Anyone can acquire the know-how for analyzing stocks.

An important key to investing is to remember that stocks are not lottery tickets.

Invest in what you know.

If you have the stomach for stocks, but neither the time nor the inclination to do the homework, invest in equity mutual funds.

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

There's no shame in losing money on a stock. Everybody does it. What is shameful is to hold on to a stock, or worse, to buy more of it when the fundamentals are deteriorating.

The S&P is up 343.8 percent for 10 years. That is a four-bagger. The general equity funds are up 283 percent. So it's getting worse, the deterioration by professionals is getting worse. The public would be better off in an index fund.