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There's No Use Diversifying Into Unknown Companies Just For The Sake Of Diversity. A Foolish Diversity Is The Hobgoblin Of Small Investors. That Said, It Isn't Safe To Own Just One Stock, Because In Spite Of Your Best Efforts, The One You Choose Might Be The Victim Of Unforeseen Circumstances. In Small Portfolios, I'd Be Comfortable Owning Between Three And Ten Stocks.

-Peter Lynch

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There's No Use Diversifying

Peter Lynch

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There's No Use Diversifying Into Unknown Companies Just For The Sake Of Diversity. A Foolish Diversity Is The Hobgoblin Of Small Investors. That Said, It Isn't Safe To Own Just One Stock, Because In Spite Of Your Best Efforts, The One You Choose Might Be The Victim Of Unforeseen Circumstances. In Small Portfolios, I'd Be Comfortable Owning Between Three And Ten Stocks.

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The Rule Of 72 Is Useful In Determining How Fast Money Will Grow. Take The Annual Return From Any Investment, Expressed As A Percentage, And Divide It Into 72. The Result Is The Number Of Years It Will Take To Double Your Money.

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Logic Is The Subject That Has Helped Me Most In Picking Stocks, If Only Because It Taught Me To Identify The Peculiar Illogic Of Wall Street. Actually Wall Street Thinks Just As The Greeks Did. The Early Greeks Used To Sit Around For Days And Debate How Many Teeth A Horse Has. They Thought They Could Figure It Out Just By Sitting There, Instead Of Checking The Horse. A Lot Of Investors Sit Around And Debate Whether A Stock Is Going Up, As If The Financial Muse Will Give Them The Answer, Instead Of Checking The Company.

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In Our Society, It's Been The Men Who've Handled Most Of The Finances, And The Women Who've Stood By And Watched Men Botch Things Up.

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The Stock Market Really Isn't A Gamble, As Long As You Pick Good Companies That You Think Will Do Well, And Not Just Because Of The Stock Price.

Investing In Stocks Is An Art, Not A Science, And People Who've Been Trained To Rigidly Quantify Everything Have A Big Disadvantage.

In The Long Run, A Portfolio Of Well Chosen Stocks And/or Equity Mutual Funds Will Always Outperform A Portfolio Of Bonds Or A Money-market Account. In The Long Run, A Portfolio Of Poorly Chosen Stocks Won't Outperform The Money Left Under The Mattress.

Owning Stocks Is Like Having Children - Don't Get Involved With More Than You Can Handle.

Most Investors Would Be Better Off In An Index Fund.

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All You Need For A Lifetime Of Successful Investing Is A Few Big Winners, And The Pluses From Those Will Overwhelm The Minuses From The Stocks That Don't Work Out.

Time Is On Your Side When You Own Shares Of Superior Companies.

The More Cash That Builds Up In The Treasury, The Greater The Pressure To Piss It Away.

The S&p Is Up 343.8 Percent For 10 Years. That Is A Four-bagger. The General Equity Funds Are Up 283 Percent. So It's Getting Worse, The Deterioration By Professionals Is Getting Worse. The Public Would Be Better Off In An Index Fund.

You Have To Let The Big Ones Make Up For Your Mistakes.

The Junior High Schools And High Schools Of America Have Forgotten To Teach One Of The Most Important Courses Of All. Investing.

When You Sell In Desperation, You Always Sell Cheap.

The Most Important Organ In The Body As Far As The Stock Market Is Concerned Is The Guts, Not The Head. Anyone Can Acquire The Know-how For Analyzing Stocks.

The Typical Big Winner In The Lynch Portfolio Generally Takes Three To Ten Years To Play Out.

That's Not To Say There's No Such Thing As An Overvalued Market, But There's No Point Worrying About It.

Avoid Hot Stocks In Hot Industries.

When Even The Analysts Are Bored, It's Time To Start Buying.

I Can't Recall Ever Once Having Seen The Name Of A Market Timer On Forbes' Annual List Of The Richest People In The World. If It Were Truly Possible To Predict Corrections, You'd Think Somebody Would Have Made Billions By Doing It.

All The Math You Need In The Stock Market You Get In The Fourth Grade.

If You Spend More Than 13 Minutes Analyzing Economic And Market Forecasts, You've Wasted 10 Minutes

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