"Most of the time common stocks are subject to irrational and excessive price fluctuations in both directions as the consequence of the ingrained tendency of most people to speculate or gamble... to give way to hope, fear and greed."
"A price decline is of no real importance to the bona fide investor unless it is either very substantial say, more than a third from cost or unless it reflects a known deterioration of consequence in the company's position. In a well-defined bear market many sound common stocks sell temporarily at extraordinary low prices. It is possible that the investor may then have a paper loss of fully 50 per cent on some of his holdings, without any convincing indication that the underlying values have been permanently affected."
13 likes
Source: The Intelligent Investor: The Classic Text on Value Investing. Book by Benjamin Graham, Chapter II, The Investor and Stock-Market Fluctuations, p. 25, 1949.
About the author
Same author
More quotes by Benjamin Graham
"Investing isn't about beating others at their game. It's about controlling yourself at your own game."
"Successful investing is about managing risk, not avoiding it."
"The intelligent investor is a realist who sells to optimists and buys from pessimists."
"In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run it is a weighing machine."
"In the world of securities, courage becomes the supreme virtue after adequate knowledge and a tested judgment are at hand."