Peter Lynch, perhaps the greatest fund manager of all time, advised: “Far more money has been lost by investors preparing for corrections, or trying to anticipate corrections, than has been lost in corrections themselves.” Warren Buffett advised in his 1996
letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders: “Inactivity strikes us as intelligent behavior.” In his 1988
letter, he stated: “Our favorite holding period is forever.” And in his 1996
letter, he advised: “We continue to make more money when snoring than when active” and added that “our stay-put behavior reflects our view that the stock market serves as a relocation center at which money is moved from the active to the patient.” And finally, he famously advised investors that if they could not avoid the temptation to time the market, at least they should “be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.” It has always seemed to me that the greatest anomaly in all of finance is that, while investors idolize these two legends, so many not only ignore their advice but tend to do the opposite.