William J. O'Neil Quotes

“Forget the adage buy low and sell high.”

“I've never met a successful pessimist.”

“It is one of the great paradoxes of the stock market that what seems too high usually goes higher and what seems too low usually goes lower.”

“My philosophy is that all stocks are bad. There are no good stocks unless they go up in price. If they go down instead, you have to cut your losses fast Letting losses run is the most serious mistake made by most investors.”

“Over-diversification is a hedge for ignorance.”

“Since the market tends to go in the opposite direction of what the majority of people think, I would say 95% of all these people you hear on TV shows are giving you their personal opinion. And personal opinions are almost always worthless – facts and markets are far more reliable.”

“The first thing I learned about how to get superior performance is not to buy stocks that are near their lows, but to buy stocks that are coming out of broad bases and beginning to make new highs.”

“The majority of unskilled investors stubbornly hold onto their losses when the losses are small and reasonable. They could get out cheaply, but being emotionally involved and human, they keep waiting and hoping until their loss gets much bigger and costs them dearly.”