William J. Bernstein Quotes

Most great financial innovators come from humble circumstances - nothing arouses fascination with financial assets quite like their absence.

The worst possible time to invest is when the skies are the clearest.

The real reason that physicians are rotten investors is that it never occurs to them that finance is a science, just like medicine.

Journalism attracts people with exceptional linguistic talent, but I have found that very few have the mathematical sophistication to appreciate the difference between skill and luck.

Human beings are not very good at taking losses or admitting failure.

Wealthy investors should realize that they are the cash cows of the investment industry, and that most of the exclusive investment vehicles available to them - separate accounts, hedge funds, limited partnerships, and the like - are designed to bleed them with commissions, transactional costs, and other fees.

The Gordon Equation is as close as being a physical law, like gravitation or planetary motion, as we will ever encounter in finance.

In fact, using entirely reasonable assumptions, you can make the Dow's discounted market value almost anything you want it to be.

It is one thing to coolly design a portfolio strategy on a sheet of paper or computer monitor, and quite another to actually deploy it.

And lest I offend art lovers, it should be pointed out that even an old master, bought from the the artist for $100 and sold 350 years later for $10,000,000, has returned only 3.34% per year.

We tend to think of the stock and bond markets as relatively recent historical phenomena, but, in fact, there have been credit markets since human civilization first took root in the Fertile Crescent.

When the barbarians are at the gates, interest rates rise and bond prices fall precipitously.

Ninety-nine percent of what you read about investing in magazines and newspapers, and 100% of what you hear on television is worse than useless.

In fact, the nation's biggest investment pools are the retirement funds of the large corporations and governmental bodies, such as the California Public Employees Retirement System (CALPERS), which manages an astounding $170 billion. These plans receive a level of professional management that even the nations wealthiest investors can only dream of.

It is often said that a monkey could run an index fund. Nothing could be further fro the truth. Precisely tracking an index requires a very high degree of market savvy, discipline and nerve.