Financial Markets Quotes

“Bullish or bearish are terms used by people who do not engage in practicing uncertainty, like the television commentators, or those who have no experience in handling risk. Alas, investors and businesses are not paid in probabilities; they are paid in dollars. Accordingly, it is not how likely an event is to happen that matters, it is how much is made when it happens that should be the consideration.”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets

“The truth is that banks are the last feudal kingdoms, their rulers omnipotent, divine warlords. Their key lieutenants are 'ronin' (wandering mercenary samurai) who roam financial markets ready to ally themselves to any warlord for a share of plunder. This is not the place to apply the latest management theory.”
― Satyajit Das, Traders, Guns & Money: Knowns and Unknowns in the Dazzling World of Derivatives

“In Financial markets, trust is imperative.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth

“Veblen called it the price-system. Mills called it the Power Elite. It's probably no more than ninety-nine people who don't know what they are doing. They're involved in high finance. Fascinating form of gambling.”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67-'72

“Having been forced into being the only game in town, they (Central banks) now find that their destiny is no longer entirely or even mostly theirs to control. The legacy of their exceptional period of hyper policy experimentation is now in the hands of governments and their political bosses (p. 265).”
― Mohamed El-Erian, The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Avoiding the Next Collapse

“People ignore facts which contradict the theory in the mind of the investor. Dis-confirming evidence must be seeked out to beat this theory.”
― Manoj Arora, From the Rat Race to Financial Freedom

“People do not necessarily know what they are doing, because our ability to comprehend even matters that concern us directly is limited – or, in the jargon, we have ‘bounded rationality’. The world is very complex and our ability to deal with it is severely limited. Therefore, we need to, and usually do, deliberately restrict our freedom of choice in order to reduce the complexity of problems we have to face. Often, government regulation works, especially in complex areas like the modern financial market, not because the government has superior knowledge but because it restricts choices and thus the complexity of the problems at hand, thereby reducing the possibility that things may go wrong.”
― Chang Ha-Joon

“Both bull and bear can be your friends.”
― Mohit Bansal

“Financial illiteracy is like being in a rain storm and trying to jump in between the raindrops... eventually it all catches you at the same time.”
― Johnnie Dent Jr.

“Lack of ethics is so ingrained in the financial industry that they are not even aware of it any more. It’s just business as usual for them.”
― Robert Rolih, The Million Dollar Decision: Get Out of the Rigged Game of Investing and Add a Million to Your Net Worth

“You don't have to be a millionaire to act on stock markets.”
― Icetratt

“The corporate and financial worlds want to make the rules but they certainly do not want to be seen making them, or governing anyone.”
― Susan George, Another World Is Possible If...

“Fundamental reasons create technical charts, but not the opposite. That is, technical charts cannot change fundamental reasons.”
― Rajib Lochan Dhibar

“They have four categories: happy, satisfied, dissatisfied, disgusted. If they hit happy, they've screwed up; They never want you to be happy. On the other hand, they don't want you so disgusted you quit. The sweet spot is somewhere between dissatisfied and disgusted.”
― Greg Lippmann

“The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed -- for lack of a better word -- is good.

Greed is right.

Greed works.

Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

Greed, in all of its forms -- greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge -- has marked the upward surge of mankind.”
― Gordon Gekko, Wallstreet 1987