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What are your least favorite investing quotes?


Palantir

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As a counterpart to the other thread.

 

I'm going to go with:

 

"...most analysts feel they must choose between two approaches customarily thought to be in opposition:  "value" and "growth...In our opinion, the two approaches are joined at the hip" - The Chairman

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Not my least favorite, in that I'm very entertained by them, but definitely some of the worst investing quotes ever:

 

"It is hard for us, and without being flippant, to even see a scenario within any realm of reason that would see us losing $1 in any of those (CDS) transactions." - Joseph Cassano, AIG Financial Products, 2007

 

“When the music stops, in terms of liquidity, things will be complicated. But as long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance. We’re still dancing,” - Chuck Prince, Citigroup, 2007

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I'm going to go with:

 

"...most analysts feel they must choose between two approaches customarily thought to be in opposition:  "value" and "growth...In our opinion, the two approaches are joined at the hip" - The Chairman

 

What don't you like about it?

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Everything here: http://new.bradjlamb.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Condo-Millionaire-Toronto-MM040414.pdf

 

Of course, this guy is getting wealthy on it. I hope he doesn't believe his own BS.

Ugh. I had forgotten about him until now.  I watched his show a few years back, I think it was called Big City Broker. His arrogance turned me off the show.

This get rich quick thing is no surprise.

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But the key quote that’s getting attention comes in Goldman Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein’s exchange with a reporter after a question on whether there should be limits to compensation:

 

Is it possible to make too much money? “Is it possible to have too much ambition? Is it possible to be too successful?” Blankfein shoots back. “I don’t want people in this firm to think that they have accomplished as much for themselves as they can and go on vacation. As the guardian of the interests of the shareholders and, by the way, for the purposes of society, I’d like them to continue to do what they are doing. I don’t want to put a cap on their ambition. It’s hard for me to argue for a cap on their compensation.”

 

So, it’s business as usual, then, regardless of whether it makes most people howl at the moon with rage? Goldman Sachs, this pillar of the free market, breeder of super-citizens, object of envy and awe will go on raking it in, getting richer than God? An impish grin spreads across Blankfein’s face. Call him a fat cat who mocks the public. Call him wicked. Call him what you will. He is, he says, just a banker “doing God’s work”

 

-WSJ, November 9, 2009

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"Buy what you know".

 

Peter Lynch got everyone believing that if you see a store that is busy at the mall, that means it's proabably a good stock.  Everyone, including myself, started buy shit like "Rainforest Cafe", etc.  Then I actually learned about reading financials and went "oh, now that actually makes sense"!

 

Needless to say, Lynch's book is not on my shelf!  Cheers!

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hahahah alwaysinvert, no offense intended. Love the username, just hate how often it's used for even the most simple situations.

 

I should switch brokers to Interactive Brokers because it's cheap...

 

"Well bmichaud, you should invert that situation and think about why it's cheap and how you really pay for it elsewhere."

 

Hahah I don't know - just thinking of something stupid where I should "invert" my thinking.

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Palantir. Given ur growth bent I would think you'd like that one. Actually one if my favorites of all time, and unlike INVERT, is not put into practice nearly enough.

 

I think they are very very different. The people who are good at picking deep value microcaps will not be good at analyzing TSLA and AMZN.

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Another pet peeve is not a quote, but a word that is now used frequently..."alpha!"

 

The next investment manager that asks me about "alpha" is going to get a kick straight in the nuts!  Cheers!

 

    Years ago, Tepper came in for a Q&A because he was friends with someone at the bank I worked for.  Halfway through, someone started rambling on with a question about "correlations...and their associations with beta...and the potential impact on alpha...", before the guy could finish his question, Tepper said "Stop!, I have no idea what you are talking about and I don't know a single thing about alpha, beta, or any of your greek terms.  I just look for simple situations where I think I can make money."  The audience laughed.

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Pretty much all of Buffet's quotes... Not because what he says isn't sensible, but because many peoples take it as gospel, the word of God himself.  People even use his word as an argument, as if what he says is pure fact and any deviation in thought is WRONG. Dang...

 

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hahahah alwaysinvert, no offense intended. Love the username, just hate how often it's used for even the most simple situations.

 

I should switch brokers to Interactive Brokers because it's cheap...

 

"Well bmichaud, you should invert that situation and think about why it's cheap and how you really pay for it elsewhere."

 

Hahah I don't know - just thinking of something stupid where I should "invert" my thinking.

Yeah, I agree and the same goes for a lot of Munger and Buffett sayings. On that note, my least favourite and most-misused buffettism is:

 

It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.

 

Cue, everyone goes around paying 25x earnings for all famous companies because they "get good dividends" and they have a " long growth runway".

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That's precisely why Buffett says that - but answers why you don't like it :)  (For Palantir)

 

That's why Buffett is wrong. They are very different philosophies of investment with little or no overlap. It's no surprise that Buffett himself is primarily a value investor who rarely has ventured into growth territory (KO is not growth investing, GARP at best).

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Washington Post, Geico and ABC/Cap Cities were all "growth" investments at the time of purchase. Buying a "growth" company at 50% of fair value is no different than buying a company in liquidation at 50% of book, if that book value is fair value.

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I think they are very very different. The people who are good at picking deep value microcaps will not be good at analyzing TSLA and AMZN.

 

I don't think this line of reasoning has anything to do with Buffett's quote. Yes, a small bank trading a half of book value will be analzed differently than Tesla Motors. But that totally misses the point. TSLA, AMZN, and any "deep value microcap" will all ultimately be valued the same way: on their future cash earnings. Buffett's point, and it's correct, is that there's no reason to approach the analysis any differently -- what it's going to earn over time? Unless you can estimate the figure in some useful way, you're not investing. You're doing something else. Calling it "growth" or "value" is nonsense. It obscures the basic truth. And that's why a lot of people lose a lot of money investing in "growth companies" that'll never earn anything and "value companies" that are basically worthless.

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