The Intelligent Investor

by Benjamin Graham

Back in 1973, the average mutual fund held on to a stock for nearly three years; by 2002, that ownership period had shrunk to just 10.9 months. It’s as if mutual-fund managers were studying their stocks just long enough to learn they shouldn’t have bought them in the first place, then promptly dumping them and starting all over.

As an old Turkish proverb says, “After you burn your mouth on hot milk, you blow on your yogurt.”