Peter Lynch Quotes

It’s when you’ve decided to invest on your own that you ought to try going it alone. That means ignoring the hot tips, the recommendations from brokerage houses, and the latest “can’t miss” suggestion from your favorite newsletter — in favor of your own research. It means ignoring the stocks that you hear Peter Lynch, or some similar authority, is buying.

One reason bonds are so popular is that elderly people have most of the money in this country, and elderly people tend to live off interest.

Invest in What You Know.

This is a crucial safeguard of our capitalist system, because if shareholders could be sued whenever a company made a mistake, people like you and me would be afraid to buy shares and become investors. Why would we want to run the risk of being held responsible for another big oil spill, or a rat hair in a hamburger, or the endless variety of mishaps that occur in business every day? Without limited liability, nobody would want to buy a single share of stock.

If you can’t figure out what category your stocks are in, then ask your broker. If a broker recommended the stocks in the first place, then you definitely ought to ask, because how else are you to know what you’re looking for? Are you looking for slow growth, fast growth, recession protection, a turnaround, a cyclical bounce, or assets?

Investing without research is like playing stud poker and never looking at the cards. For some reason the whole business

If you can’t convince yourself “When I’m down 25 percent, I’m a buyer” and banish forever the fatal thought “When I’m down 25 percent, I’m a seller,” then you’ll never make a decent profit in stocks.

The combination of new equipment and new chemicals turned the American farm into the most efficient food bank on earth, capable of producing more wheat, corn, and so forth, per acre than any other country's farms in the history of agriculture.

The great joke is that the next time is never like the last time, and yet we can’t help readying ourselves for it anyway. This all reminds me of the Mayan conception of the universe.

If you can follow only one bit of data, follow the earnings — assuming the company in question has earnings. As you’ll see in this text, I subscribe to the crusty notion that sooner or later earnings make or break an investment in equities. What the stock price does today, tomorrow, or next week is only a distraction.

In other words, I continue to think like an amateur as frequently as possible. GOING IT ALONE

Debt is saving in reverse. The more it builds up, the worse off you are.

A person who owns property and has a stake in the enterprise is likely to work harder and feel happier and do a better job than a person who doesn't.

Only invest what you could afford to lose without that loss having any effect on your daily life in forseable future.

Look for small companies that are already profitable and have proven that their concept can be replicated. • Be suspicious of companies with growth rates of 50 to 100 percent a year.