50 Essential Trading and Investment Quotes: A Professional's Guide

Warren Buffett’s Investment Philosophy

Warren Buffett, known as the “Oracle of Omaha,” has shaped modern value investing. His quotes offer deep insights into long-term investment strategies:

1. “Successful investing takes time, discipline and patience.”

2. “Invest in yourself as much as you can; you are your own biggest asset by far.”

3. “I’ll tell you how to become rich: close all doors, beware when others are greedy and be greedy when others are afraid.”

4. “When it’s raining gold, reach for a bucket, not a thimble.”

5. “It’s much better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a suitable company at a wonderful price.”

6. “Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.”

These principles emphasize the importance of patience, self-improvement, contrarian thinking, and focused investment strategies.

The Psychology of Trading

Understanding market psychology is crucial for successful trading. These quotes highlight key psychological aspects:

7. “Hope is a bogus emotion that only costs you money.” - Jim Cramer

8. “You need to know very well when to move away, or give up the loss, and not allow the anxiety to trick you into trying again.” - Warren Buffett

9. “The market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.” - Warren Buffett

10. “Trade What’s Happening… Not What You Think Is Gonna Happen.” - Doug Gregory

11. “The game of speculation is the most uniformly fascinating game in the world. But it is not a game for the stupid, the mentally lazy, the person of inferior emotional balance, or the get-rich-quick adventurer. They will die poor.” - Jesse Livermore

12. “When I get hurt in the market, I get the hell out. It doesn’t matter at all where the market is trading. I just get out, because I believe that once you’re hurt in the market, your decisions are going to be far less objective than they are when you’re doing well.” - Randy McKay

13. “When you genuinely accept the risks, you will be at peace with any outcome.” - Mark Douglas

14. “I think investment psychology is by far the more important element, followed by risk control, with the least important consideration being the question of where you buy and sell.” - Tom Basso

These quotes emphasize emotional discipline, objective decision-making, and risk acceptance as key psychological factors in trading success.

Building a Successful Trading System

A robust trading system is essential for consistent performance. Consider these insights:

15. “All the math you need in the stock market you get in the fourth grade.” - Peter Lynch

16. “The key to trading success is emotional discipline. If intelligence were the key, there would be a lot more people making money trading.” - Victor Sperandeo

17. “The elements of good trading are (1) cutting losses, (2) cutting losses, and (3) cutting losses. If you can follow these three rules, you may have a chance.”

18. “I have been trading for decades and I am still standing. I have seen a lot of traders come and go. They have a system or a program that works in some specific environments and fails in others. In contrast, my strategy is dynamic and ever-evolving. I constantly learn and change.” - Thomas Busby

19. “You never know what kind of setup market will present to you, your objective should be to find an opportunity where risk-reward ratio is best.” - Jaymin Shah

20. “Many investors make the mistake of buying high and selling low while the exact opposite is the right strategy to outperform over the long term.” - John Paulson

These quotes highlight the importance of simplicity, emotional control, loss management, adaptability, and contrarian thinking in successful trading systems.

Market Dynamics and Analysis

Understanding market behavior is crucial for making informed trading decisions:

21. “We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.” - Warren Buffett

22. “Never confuse your position with your best interest. Many traders take a position in a stock and form an emotional attachment to it.” - Jeff Cooper

23. “The core problem, however, is the need to fit markets into a style of trading rather than finding ways to trade that fit with market behavior.” - Brett Steenbarger

24. “Stock price movements actually begin to reflect new developments before it is generally recognized that they have taken place.” - Arthur Zeikel

25. “The only true test of whether a stock is ‘cheap’ or ‘high’ is not its current price in relation to some former price, no matter how accustomed we may have become to that former price, but whether the company’s fundamentals are significantly more or less favorable than the current financial-community appraisal of that stock.” - Philip Fisher

26. “In trading, everything works sometimes and nothing works always.”

These quotes emphasize the importance of understanding market sentiment, avoiding emotional attachments, adapting to market conditions, and focusing on fundamental analysis.

Risk Management in Trading

Effective risk management is crucial for long-term trading success:

27. “Amateurs think about how much money they can make. Professionals think about how much money they could lose.” - Jack Schwager

28. “You never know what kind of setup market will present to you, your objective should be to find an opportunity where risk-reward ratio is best.” - Jaymin Shah

29. “Investing in yourself is the best thing you can do, and as a part of investing in yourself; you should learn more about money management.” - Warren Buffett

30. “5/1 risk/reward ratio allows you to have a hit rate of 20%. I can actually be a complete imbecile. I can be wrong 80% of the time and still not lose.” - Paul Tudor Jones

31. “Don’t test the depth of the river with both your feet while taking the risk” - Warren Buffett

32. “The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.” - John Maynard Keynes

33. “Letting losses run is the most serious mistake made by most investors.” - Benjamin Graham

These quotes highlight the importance of focusing on potential losses, maintaining favorable risk-reward ratios, continuous learning, and avoiding excessive risk-taking.

Discipline and Patience in Trading

Maintaining discipline and patience is crucial for long-term trading success:

34. “The desire for constant action irrespective of underlying conditions is responsible for many losses in Wall Street.” - Jesse Livermore

35. “If most traders would learn to sit on their hands 50 percent of the time, they would make a lot more money.” - Bill Lipschutz

36. “If you can’t take a small loss, sooner or later you will take the mother of all losses.” - Ed Seykota

37. “If you want real insights that can make you more money, look at the scars running up and down your account statements. Stop doing what’s harming you, and your results will get better. It’s a mathematical certainty!” - Kurt Capra

38. “The question should not be how much I will profit on this trade! The true question is; will I be fine if I don’t profit from this trade.” - Yvan Byeajee

39. “Successful traders tend to be instinctive rather than overly analytical.” - Joe Ritchie

40. “I just wait until there is money lying in the corner, and all I have to do is go over there and pick it up. I do nothing in the meantime.” - Jim Rogers

These quotes emphasize the importance of patience, learning from mistakes, emotional detachment, and waiting for high-probability setups.

Humorous Perspectives on Trading

Sometimes, a bit of humor can provide valuable insights into trading:

41. “It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who has been swimming naked.” - Warren Buffett

42. “The trend is your friend – until it stabs you in the back with a chopstick.” - Anonymous

43. “Bull markets are born on pessimism, grow on skepticism, mature on optimism and die of euphoria.” - John Templeton

44. “Rising tide lifts all boats over the wall of worry and exposes bears swimming naked.” - Anonymous

45. “One of the funny things about the stock market is that every time one person buys, another sells, and both think they are astute.” - William Feather

46. “There are old traders and there are bold traders, but there are very few old, bold traders.” - Ed Seykota

47. “The main purpose of stock market is to make fools of as many men as possible” - Bernard Baruch

48. “Investing is like poker. You should only play the good hands, and drop out of the poor hands, forfeiting the ante.” - Gary Biefeldt

49. “Sometimes your best investments are the ones you don’t make.” - Donald Trump

50. “There is time to go long, time to go short and time to go fishing.” - Jesse Lauriston Livermore

These humorous quotes offer lighthearted yet insightful perspectives on market cycles, trader psychology, and the importance of selectivity in trading decisions.