"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."
"In other words, the market is not a weighing machine, on which the value of each issue is recorded by an exact and impersonal mechanism, in accordance with its specific qualities. Rather should we say that the market is a voting machine, whereon countless individuals register choices which are the product partly of reason and partly of emotion."
8 likes
Source: Benjamin Graham (1962). “Security Analysis: Principles and Technique”
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."