Monday, October 1, 2007

The bubble?



I found this article in today's Business Line. Brokers cutting a cake and celebrating the BSE Sensex's new life time peak of 17,000.

One thing stuck me though... I am not sure if the balloon in the picture is supposed to be symbolic of the times to come..

Buffett and the Beast

Some of the best quotes of the man who tamed the beast (read markets...)

1. It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.

2. Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.

3. Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked

4. Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken

5. If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians

6. When a management team with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.

7. In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield

8. Our future rates of gain will fall far short of those achieved in the past. Berkshire's capital base is now simply too large to allow us to earn truly outsized returns. If you believe otherwise, you should consider a career in sales but avoid one in mathematics (In his letter to the shareholders)

9. Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.

10. In a bull market, one must avoid the error of the preening duck that quacks boastfully after a torrential rainstorm, thinking that its paddling skills have caused it to rise in the world.