re: showdown to bbm bbm says "By the way, even the great Buffet...

re: showdown to bbm bbm says "By the way, even the great Buffet would never buy when a stock is falling."
You obviously don't know much about Buffett. He buys when others are selling. He bought GEICO in 1976, after GEICO's shares had dropped from $42 two years earlier to $2. He bought a huge chunk of Coca Cola during the panic of '87, despite being a Cherry Pepsi man. 'Washington Post' was a similar story. I could go on, but you ought to do some research on your own.

To get you started here are some words of wisdom from the worlds greatest investor, bar none:

Why Is It So Difficult For Some People To Understand The Concept Of Buying Dollar Bills For 40 Cents? One sidelight here: it is extraordinary to me that the idea of buying dollar bills for 40 cents takes immediately with people or it doesn't take at all. It's like an inoculation. If it doesn't grab a person right away, I find that you can talk to him for years and show him records, and it doesn't make any difference. They just don't seem able to grasp the concept, simple as it is. A fellow like Rick Guerin, who had no formal education in business, understands immediately the value approach to investing and he's applying it five minutes later. I've never seen anyone who became a gradual convert over a ten-year period to this approach. It doesn't seem to be a matter of IQ or academic training. It's instant recognition, or it is nothing. (Transcript of Warren Buffett’s speech “The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville” – Which can be found in the appendix of “The Intelligent Investor”, by Benjamin Graham.)


When Do You Sell A Stock?
"The best thing to do is buy a stock that you don't ever want to sell. That's what we're trying to do. And that's true when we buy an entire business. We bought all of GEICO, we bought all of See's Candies, Buffalo News. We're not buying those to resell. What we're trying to do is buy a business we'll be happy with if we own it for the rest of our lives, and we expect to with those. –Warren Buffett

I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful. (Warren Buffett lecturing to a group of students at Columbia U. He was 21 years old.)


There was a small private business and one of the owners was a man named Market. Every day Mr. Market had a new opinion of what the business was worth, and at that price stood ready to buy your interest of sell you his. As excitable as he was opinionated, Mr. Market presented a constant distraction to his fellow owners. "What does he know?" they would wonder, as he bid them an extraordinarily high price or a depressingly low one. Actually, the gentleman knew little or nothing. You may be happy to sell out to him when he quotes you a ridiculously high price, and equally happy to buy from him when his price is low. But the rest of the time you will be wiser to form your own ideas of the value of your holdings, based on full reports from the company about its operations and financial position.



As far as I am concerned, the stock market doesn't exist. It is there only as a reference to see if anybody is offering to do anything foolish. When we invest in stocks, we invest in businesses. You simply have to behave according to what is rational rather than according to what is fashionable. I think it's fascinating how the ruling orthodoxy can cause a lot of people to think the earth is flat. Investing in a market where people believe in efficiency is like playing bridge with someone who's been told it doesn't do any good to look at the cards.