Sometimes its hard to be focused on one goal. Value investing is one such goal that is hard to be focused. So here is the value investor’s manifesto to help us remember and be grounded.
- I am an Investor. I am not a Speculator.
- Its not how much money I make that matters, but how much money I keep, how hard it works, and how many years I let it work.
- Loss prevention is more important than the pursuit of gain.
- Patience is a virtue for me. I resist the natural human bias to act.
- I know if I keep at hard work and honesty, I will get almost anything in life. Investing isn’t different.
- I don’t try to predict the future. I always try to prepare for it.
- I know that to make money in stocks, I must have vision to see them, courage to buy them, and patience to hold them.
- My goal as an investor is not to be the next Warren Buffet, but to become a more authentic version of myself.
- I understand that knowing what I don’t know is more useful than being brilliant.
- I know leverage when combined with stock market volatility equals dynamite, and thus I keep myself far away from it.
- I know what I own, and why I own it.
- I know there is no easy road. The moment I believe the road is easy, I will put myself at great risk.
- For me, there is no such thing as getting rich quick.
- I know to achieve success as an investor, I don’t have to be brilliant, but only a little bit wiser than the other guys, on average, for a long, long time.
- I know that in investing, I only have to do few things right so long as I do not do too many things wrong.
- I remember that the most dangerous words in investing are ‘This time it’s different’.
- I can’t live long enough to make all investing mistakes myself. I must thus learn from the mistakes of others.
- Humility and courage are my greatest assets as an investor. I must not lose them.
- I try to keep my head when others are losing theirs. Successful investing for me is 99% temperament and 1% intelligence.
- I remind myself often: I am an Investor.