by Charles Cheng, CFA

 

Legendary investor Charlie Munger passed away at the age of 99 in November.  He is best known for his longtime partnership with Warren Buffett in managing Berkshire Hathaway, together having one of the most successful investment track records in history.  He is also well known for his wit and wisdom, distilled from a lifetime of learning, and his sayings about life, business, and economics are renowned for their wisdom and practicality.  Here are some of his quotes directly related to the art of investing.

傳奇投資家查理·蒙格於 11 月去世，享年 99 歲。　他因與華倫·巴菲特長期合作管理波克夏海瑟威而聞名，他們共同擁有歷史上最成功的投資記錄之一。　他也以其從一生的學習中提煉出來的機智和智慧而聞名。他關於生活、商業和經濟的言論以其智慧和實用性而聞名。　以下是他與投資藝術直接相關的一些名言。

 

 

On being patient rather than chasing fads:

“The big money is not in the buying and the selling, but in the waiting.”

“The world is full of foolish gamblers and they will not do as well as the patient investors.”

“It takes character to sit with all that cash and to do nothing. I didn’t get to be where I am by going after mediocre opportunities.”

“You need to keep raw irrational emotion under control. You need patience and discipline and an ability to take losses and adversity without going crazy. You need an ability to not be driven crazy by extreme success.”

“If you’re going to invest in stocks for the long term, or real estate, of course, there are going to be periods when there’s a lot of agony and other periods when there’s a boom. I think you just have to learn to live through them.”

關於保持耐心而不是追逐時尚：

“賺大錢的秘訣不在於買進或賣出，而在於等待。”

“世界上充滿了愚蠢的賭徒，他們的表現不會比耐心的投資者一樣好。”

“有性格的人才能拿著那麼多現金而什麼都不做。　我能有今天，靠的是不去追逐平庸的機會。”

“你需要控制原始的非理性的情緒。　你需要耐心和紀律，以及承受損失和逆境而不發瘋的能力。　你需要一種不被極端成功逼瘋的能力。”

“如果你打算長期投資股票或房地產，當然，會有一段時期經歷煎熬，也有一段時期會出現繁榮。　我認為你只能學會面對它們。”

 

 

On finding a limited set of winning companies rather than trying to spread too thin:

“What everybody has learned is that everybody needs some significant participation in the 12 companies that do better than everybody else. You need two or three of them, at least.”

“I find it much easier to find four or five investments where I have a pretty reasonable chance of being right that they’re way above average. I think it’s much easier to find five than it is to find 100. I think the people who argue for all this diversification — by the way, I call it ‘deworsification’ — which I copied from somebody — and I’m way more comfortable owning two or three stocks which I think I know something about and where I think I have an advantage.”

“I think that the modern investor, to get ahead, almost has to get in a few stocks that are way above average. They try and have a few Apples and Googles or so on, just to keep up, because they know that a significant percentage of all the gains that come to all the common stockholders combined is going to come from a few of these supercompetitors.”

關於尋找有限的獲勝公司而不是試圖將投資分散得太薄：

“每個人都知道，我們都需要對這 12 家比其他人做得更好的公司有一定的投資度。你至少需要投資這12個中的兩到三個。”

“我認為選擇四至五家公司的股票來投資會比較容易，因為這樣的話我判斷正確的機率比較高——也就是這些公司都能表現得超過平均水平。我認為找到5 個比找到100 個要容易得多。我認為那些主張多元化的人——順便說一句，我稱之為“去糟糕化”——這是我從某人那裡抄來的— —我感覺擁有兩至三隻股票讓我更舒服，我認為我對這些股票有所了解並且我認為我有優勢。”

“我認為，現代投資者要想取得成功，幾乎必須買入一些遠高於平均水平的股票。他們嘗試持有一些蘋果和谷歌等股票，以爭取趕上投資回報率，因為他們知道，所有普通股股東的總收益中，有相當一部分來自其中的一些超級競爭對手。”

 

 

On identifying good investments:

“Forget what you know about buying fair businesses at wonderful prices. Instead, buy wonderful businesses at fair prices.”

“Good businesses are ethical businesses. A business model that relies on trickery is doomed to fail.”

“All intelligent investing is value investing – acquiring more than you are paying for. You must value the business in order to value the stock.”

“Invest in a business any fool can run, because someday a fool will. If it won’t stand a little mismanagement, it’s not much of a business.”

關於識別良好的投資：

“忘記你所知道的“以極優的價格購買還不錯的企業。相反，要以還不錯的價格購買極優的企業。”

“好的企業都是有道德的企業。　依賴欺騙的商業模式註定會失敗。”

“所有明智的投資都是價值投資，獲得的比你所付出的更多。　你必須評估該事業的價值才能對股票進行估值。”

“投資任何傻瓜都能經營的生意，因為總有一天傻瓜會經營它。　如果它不能忍受一點點管理不善，那就算不上是什么好生意了。”

本文僅代表作者個人觀點，不代表任何公司觀點，不應被視為投資建議。

 

 

This article reflects the personal views of the author and not any firm’s and should not be viewed as an investment recommendation.

 

 

 

 

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