The Intelligent Investor “ Learn every day , but especially from the experiences of others . It ’ s cheaper !” — John C . Bogle What Experts Say about Individual Stocks vs . Mutual Funds
The Intelligent Investor “ Learn every day , but especially from the experiences of others . It ’ s cheaper !” — John C . Bogle What Experts Say about Individual Stocks vs . Mutual Funds
Kiplinger Personal Finance “ Eight Stocks to Buy Now ” in the January , 2015 forecast issue under-performed its “ Five Stocks to Sell ” twelve months later .
Barber and Odean Study : “ Of 66,465 households with accounts at a large discount broker during 1991 to 1996 , those that trade most earned an annual return of 11.4 percent , while the market returned 17.9 percent .”
Brett Arends , Wall Street Journal columnist : “ Buy individual stocks only as a gamble .”
Benjamin Graham : “ I have little confidence , even in the ability of analysts , let alone untrained investors , to select common stocks what will give better than average results .”
Bill Bernstein , author of The Four Pillars of Investing : “ Picking individual stocks is like volleying with the Williams sisters .”
Jack Bogle : “ Attempting to build an investment program around a handful of individual securities is , for all but the most exceptional investors , a fool ’ s errand .”
Adam Bold , author , adviser : “ Mutual funds don ’ t have the pizzazz of the hot stocks of the moment . If you ’ re looking for entertainment , go gambling in Las Vegas . But if you want to accumulate real money for your retirement and other goals , mutual funds are the safer bet .”
James Dahle , MD , financial advisor , and author of The White-Coat Investor : “ Think you know how to pick stocks ? Then guess again . Every time you buy or sell the person on the other side of the trade likely has an IQ of 160 , spends 70 hours per week analyzing his industry , and has access to computing power and databases you can only dream of .”
Dalbar Research Report ( July 15 , 2003 ): “ The average equity investor earned a paltry 2.57 % annually ; compared to inflation of 3.14 % and the 12.22 % the S & P 500 index earned annually for the last 19 years .”
Charles Ellis author of Winning the Loser ’ s Game : “ If you , like Walter Mitty , still fantasize that you can and will beat the pros , you ’ ll need both luck and prayer .”
Michael Lewis , former bond broker and financial journalist : “ A vast industry of stockbrokers , financial planners , and investment advisers skims a fortune for themselves off the top in exchange for passing their clients ’ money on to people who , as a whole , cannot possibly outperform the market .”
Kenneth French : Former President of the American Finance Association : “ The market is smarter than we are and no matter how smart we get , the market will always be smarter than we are .”
Sy Harding , Forbes contributor : “ My advice – avoid individual stocks ! Even experienced full-time professional money managers , with staffs of trained people performing research , with access to data , software , and corporate contacts that most part-time investors could not come close to duplicating , struggle to match the market ’ s performance by buying , holding , or selling individual stocks .”
Danial Kahneman , Nobel Laureate : “ There is general agreement among researchers that nearly all stock pickers , whether they know it or not-and few of them do-are playing a game of chance .”
Mathwizard : The vast majority of trades you would make are between you and a professional investor . Both of you are assigning a value to the stock , and one of you thinks the price is high and another thinks it is low . Who do you suppose is more likely to be right .