The Simpler It Is, The Better I

If You're Prepared To Invest In A Company, Then You Ought To Be Able To Explain Why In Simple Language That A Fifth Grader Could Understand, And Quickly Enough So The Fifth Grader Won't Get Bored.

It's Human Nature To Keep Doing Something As Long As It's Pleasurable And You Can Succeed At It, Which Is Why The World Population Continues To Double Every 40 Years.

Often, There Is No Correlation Between The Success Of A Company's Operations And The Success Of Its Stock Over A Few Months Or Even A Few Years. In The Long Term, There Is A 100 Percent Correlation Between The Success Of The Company And The Success Of Its Stock. This Disparity Is The Key To Making Money; It Pays To Be Patient, And To Own Successful Companies.

Thousands Of Experts Study Overbought Indicators, Oversold Indicators, Head-and-shoulder Patterns, Put-call Ratios, The Fed's Policy On Money Supply, Foreign Investment, The Movement Of The Constellations Through The Heavens, And The Moss On Oak Trees, And They Can't Predict Markets With Any Useful Consistency, Any More Than The Gizzard Squeezers Could Tell The Roman Emperors When The Huns Would Attack.

People Who Want To Know How Stocks Fared On Any Given Day Ask, "where Did The Dow Close?" I'm More Interested In How Many Stocks Went Up Versus How Many Went Down. These So-called Advance/decline Numbers Paint A More Realistic Picture.