How Not to Invest Quotes

“During periods of market volatility and stress, you should step back and consider the bigger picture. The most important thing you can learn—whether you are a trader, strategist, investor, or entrepreneur—is to recognize what you can and cannot control.”
― Barry Ritholtz, How Not to Invest: The ideas, numbers, and behavior that destroy wealth—and how to avoid them

“Risk Is Unavoidable. Panic Is Optional.”
― Barry Ritholtz, How Not to Invest: The ideas, numbers, and behavior that destroy wealth—and how to avoid them

“We all tend to be outcome-focused, often to the detriment of choosing a good process.”
― Barry Ritholtz, How Not to Invest: The ideas, numbers, and behavior that destroy wealth—and how to avoid them

“Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.”207 If you did not get what you wanted from markets since those 2022 lows, then perhaps the silver lining is you gained experience.”
― Barry Ritholtz, How Not to Invest: The ideas, numbers, and behavior that destroy wealth—and how to avoid them

“If you read the financial press or watch FinTV, take note of what the majority of coverage is about: Things you have absolutely no agency over. It’s what I call financial weather. The daily noise, the Sturm und Drang, the angst-producing warnings are all about subjects beyond your control.”
― Barry Ritholtz, How Not to Invest: The ideas, numbers, and behavior that destroy wealth—and how to avoid them

“View mistakes as opportunities to improve. He calls this “mistake-based learning.” Own your errors. Never hide them, but bring them forward to create a learning opportunity. Pain + reflection = progress. The “pain of failure” should lead to reflection, from which your wisdom derives. Track what you do; keep systemizing what you learn from your mistakes.”
― Barry Ritholtz, How Not to Invest: The ideas, numbers, and behavior that destroy wealth—and how to avoid them

“The stigma surrounding failure needs to go. The surest way to avoid future failure is to embrace it and learn from past failures.”
― Barry Ritholtz, How Not to Invest: The ideas, numbers, and behavior that destroy wealth—and how to avoid them

“I am a big believer in the effectiveness of DI. The tax losses are real, not a theoretical benefit. They are hard dollars, quantifiable, and specific. Investors see actual dollar savings annually on their personal tax returns.”
― Barry Ritholtz, How Not to Invest: The ideas, numbers, and behavior that destroy wealth—and how to avoid them

“The biggest obstacle to your success is not your lack of stock-picking prowess or inability to time markets, but your inability to manage your own behavior. And unlike whatever the Federal Reserve does at the FOMC meeting next month, this is within your control.”
― Barry Ritholtz, How Not to Invest: The ideas, numbers, and behavior that destroy wealth—and how to avoid them

“Fail better. Understand what is and is NOT in your control.”
― Barry Ritholtz, How Not to Invest: The ideas, numbers, and behavior that destroy wealth—and how to avoid them

“Avoid mistakes (fewer unforced errors, be less stupid).”
― Barry Ritholtz, How Not to Invest: The ideas, numbers, and behavior that destroy wealth—and how to avoid them

“Pundits may hate uncertainty—it tends to make them look foolish—but markets harbor no such bias. In fact, markets thrive on uncertainty. It is their reason for being.”
― Barry Ritholtz, How Not to Invest: The ideas, numbers, and behavior that destroy wealth—and how to avoid them

“Uncertainty drives the market’s price-discovery mechanism. Investing requires there to be differences of opinion. Without any uncertainty, who would take the opposite side of your trade?”
― Barry Ritholtz, How Not to Invest: The ideas, numbers, and behavior that destroy wealth—and how to avoid them

“We rarely know precisely what the sources of good outcomes are; however, we have a high degree of confidence what the probabilities are for a good process. A strong process is a guarantee—not of outcome or results, but of a higher probability of obtaining your desired results.”
― Barry Ritholtz, How Not to Invest: The ideas, numbers, and behavior that destroy wealth—and how to avoid them

“To repeat Paul Graham’s astute observation: “We are experts in the way the world used to be.”98 This”
― Barry Ritholtz, How Not to Invest: The ideas, numbers, and behavior that destroy wealth—and how to avoid them

“Consider this to be a truism whenever you flip on the news and become frightened by the first draft of history. The odds are very much against decisions made under those circumstances working out well for your long-term portfolio.”
― Barry Ritholtz, How Not to Invest: The ideas, numbers, and behavior that destroy wealth—and how to avoid them

“Recognizing how little you know is a superpower. If we were less certain of ourselves and had more humility, we would all be better investors.”
― Barry Ritholtz, How Not to Invest: The ideas, numbers, and behavior that destroy wealth—and how to avoid them

“This truth is counterintuitive: Avoiding errors is more important than scoring wins.”
― Barry Ritholtz, How Not to Invest: The ideas, numbers, and behavior that destroy wealth—and how to avoid them