Value investing by its very nature is contrarian.

The prevailing view has been that the market will earn a high rate of return if the holding period is long enough, but entry point is what really matters.

Short-term performance envy causes many of the shortcomings that lock most investors into a perpetual cycle of underachievement. Watch your competitors not out of jealousy but out of respect and focus your efforts not on replicating others' portfolios but on looking for opportunities where they are not. The only way for investors to significantly outperform is to periodically stand far apart from the crowd, something few are willing, or able, to do.

People should be highly sceptical of anyone's including their own, ability to predict the future, and instead pursue strategies that can survive whatever may occur.

We buy expecting to hold a bond to maturity and a stock forever.

Avoid organizing investment team into silos.

I don't have a Bloomberg on my desk. I don't care.