89 Awesome Value Investing Quotes From Walter Schloss

1. We do not spend a great deal of time talking to management
2. I helped Ben with the third edition of Security Analysis, published in 1951
3. When you buy a depressed company it’s not going to go up right after you buy it, believe me
4. Sell is tough. It’s the worst, it’s the most difficult thing of all
5. You never get the high and you never get the low
6. Each year we buy stocks and they go up, we sell them and then we try to buy something cheaper
7. My first job at Graham-Newman was to prepare the annual report for that 10th year
8. I agree with Warren to keep it simple and not use higher mathematics in your analysis
9. You have to be a little aware of the emotions of the people who have invested with you
10. Warren is a very good judge of people and he’s a very good judge of businesses
11. Ben’s emphasis was on protecting his expectation of profit with minimum risk
12. You know, people tend to like to buy companies that are doing well
13. We like to buy stocks which we feel are undervalued and then we have to have the guts to buy more when they go down
14. My job was to find stocks that were undervalued
15. Ben was really a contrarian but he didn’t use those terms because he was really buying value
16. You have to invest the way that’s comfortable for you
17. Fear and greed tend to affect one’s judgement
18. By setting up Berkshire Hathaway, Warren has done everything very rationally
19. I found that it was much better to look at the figures rather than people
20. If the stock goes down we want to buy more
21. Basically, we try to buy value expressed in the differential between its price and what we think its worth
22. One has to know more about a company if one buys earnings
23. Ben was a very simple straightforward man with a brilliant quick mind
24. Ben didn’t want to lose money. He had had a rough time during the depression
25. Some kinds of stocks are easier to analyse than others
26. Book values have some good and some bad features
27. I don’t have a ticker-tape machine in my office
28. Try to establish the value of a company
29. People don’t like to buy things that are going down
30. I liked the results of the profits in the markets
31. Enjoy your work and have ethical standards
32. Try to buy assets at a discount than to buy earnings
33. Buy stocks where the outlook is not good
34. I have been around a long time and Wall Street has changed a lot
35. You have to have patience in this field
36. The market is a very emotional place that appeals to fear and greed
37. Most look at earnings and earnings potential, well I can’t get into that game
38. Look for companies that do not have a lot of debt
39. Be careful of leverage. It can go against you
40. You never really know a stock until you own it
41. I like the idea of company-paid dividends
42. Try not to let your emotions affect your judgement
43. Earnings can change dramatically. Usually assets change slowly
44. Timidity prompted by past failures causes investors to miss the most important bull markets
45. Have a philosophy of investment and try to follow it
46. Look at companies selling at new lows
47. Price is the most important factor to use in relation to value
48. Have patience. Stocks don’t go up immediately
49. Yes, Warren [Buffett] has done very well
50. Ben was a very simple straightforward man with a brilliant quick mind
51. Ben didn’t want to lose money. He had had a rough time during the Depression
52. Ben was a great believer in buying a diversified group of securities, so that he limited his risk
53. We basically followed the idea of buying comapnies selling below working-capital — at two thirds of working-capital
54. This is a business. Like any other business
55. I was in Graham’s office the day he bought GEICO. Warren owns one-third of the stock today
56. Graham liked the idea of protection on the downside
57. One of the tricks of this business is, keep your losses down
58. I’m not very good on timing. In fact, I’ve stayed away from it
59. You have to have confidence in what you’re doing
60. Stockbrokers aren’t too interested in a stock you can sit there for five years with
61. When I buy a stock, I have kind of an idea where I want to sell it
62. Our average holding period is four years
63. I’m a passive investor. There are people who are very aggressive; they try to buy companies
64. Making a decision to sell is the most difficult thing we do
65. All the publicity about value investing – it’s become a very popular thing
66. We don’t put the same amount of money in each stock
67. We may buy a little bit of a stock, to get our feet wet and get a feeling for it
68. Managements, you know, often think of themselves
69. A lot of companies have lots of assets tied up in plant and equipment. Well, is it old plant, or is it new plant?
70. If the market is so cheap, you want to get something with a little more zip in it, or potential
71. We get a feeling, if we can, about what we think the company is worth
72. If there are not too many value stocks that I can find, the market isn’t all that cheap
73. If the market were way over priced, I wouldn’t own any stocks
74. Remember that a share of stock represents a part of a business and is not just a piece of paper
75. Use book value as a starting point to try and establish the value of the enterprise
76. Be sure that debt does not exceed 100% of the equity
77. Don’t buy on tips or for a quick move
78. Don’t sell on bad news
79. Don’t be afraid to be a loner but be sure that you are correct in your judgement
80. Try to look for weaknesses in your thinking
81. Have the courage of your convictions once you have made a decision
82. Don’t be in too much of a hurry to sell
83. Before selling, try to re-evaluate the company again and see where the stock sells in realtion to its book value
84. Be aware of the level of the stock market. Are yields low and PE ratios high?
85. I find it helpful to buy near the low of the last few years
86. Fear and greed are probably the worst emotions to have in connection with the purchase and sale of stocks
87. Devise a simple strategy so you can sleep at night
88. Make sure you have the courage to stay true to your convictions and not let the market affect your emotions

taken from here