Quotes from Kenneth L. Fisher

The stock market is almost magical because it always leads the economy. It goes down long before the economy drops and then heads higher long before the economy rebounds. It always has.

it's a good idea to remember that whenever there is a buy and a seller, somebody is wrong. Make sure it's not you

Sure enough, America was shocked by Babson's words: "More people are borrowing and speculating today than ever in our history. Sooner or later a crash is coming which will take in the leading stocks and cause a decline of from 60 to 80 points in the Dow Jones barometer. Wise are those investors who get out of debt and reef their sails.

Problem is, "everyone else" is as crowd-like as "everyone." Their opinions usually aren't unique, and their analysis often isn't any broader or better than the main crowd

He accomplished this primarily by hooking up with his best friend, Henry Goldman, before the Goldman Sachs partnership. (They toyed with creating Goldman and Lehman but instead decided on splitting the profits 50/50.)

One of their most famous coups was underwriting a $10 million loan for a growing mail-order house called Sears, Roebuck, headed by Goldman's distant relative. It was the first time a mail-order security had ever been on the market-a calculated risk, but one that paid off.

No professional Wall Street tipster or plausible promoter can turn a sane person into a stock gambler as easily as his next-door neighbor bragging about his winnings. If all men profited by experience, the world would be peopled exclusively by the wise....

When is it safe to invest?' there are two answers ... 1. Never! 2. Always! `Never for' the crowd... `Always' for the reasonable man; for it all depends upon what you call `safe,' in a world peopled by fallible human beings.

People must be right sometimes, must feel good sometimes, or we'd never have a herd. They would just give up. The occasional rightness fosters false confidence, reinforcing the crowd's wisdom. It is plausible deniability for TGH. It is how TGH repeatedly sucks the crowd in, makes them ignore negatives, then doles out maximum pain and suffering.

Never pay attention to any price-weighted index.

There are no good or bad stocks. The company is either good or bad. Stocks are just stocks.

publishers Little, Brown and Company approached Engel to expand his ideas into a book, and he penned How to Buy Stocks in six weeks.

As early as 1947, Birrell had acquired Doeskin Products, a listed corporation, by selling it $2 million in overvalued securities, then using the proceeds to buy out the controlling stockholders. In essence, he bought it with its own money!

If a stock is high enough to be sold, it is high enough to be sold short," was another Sage maxim.

1. Divide capital into 10 equal parts and never risk more than a tenth of it on any one trade. 2. Never overtrade. 3. Never let a profit run into a loss. 4. Do not buck the trend. 5. Trade only in active stocks. 6. When in doubt, get out, and don't get in when in doubt. 7. Never buy just to get a dividend. 8. Never average a loss.

oney became king when Nathan Rothschild rose to power over Europe in the 19th century, forcing people to recognize finance over divine right.

Ultimately, the Rothschilds united to form a sturdy, efficient moneychain across Europe that financed its industrial revolution, creating a common money market for the first time.

He financed governments, wars, railroads-anything that stood for progress.

Although banking was then still in its rudimentary state, Nathan fully understood the interplay between finance and economics, the effects of political news on the stock exchange, the quickest way to bull or bear a market, and how gold reserves affected the exchange rate.

Quick-thinking Nathan eventually bought the prince his consols, but he first used the money to successfully speculate in gold bullion, making a killing and a reputation for himself in the London exchange.

Their fame is based to a large extent on how the pigeons enabled Nathan to know before anyone else outside the battle zone of Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo.

The Rothschild brothers-Nathan, James, Amschel, Carl, and Salomon-comprised the world's largest private bank.

Astor was among his era's most controversial figures because of his millions-and the methods by which he earned them.

They bought blocks of bonds priced from 80 to 82 cents on the dollar, paying for them in bank notes worth half their face value!