LongRun Investment Principles
15 foundational strategies for intelligent long-term investing. Click each principle to explore in depth.
Key Takeaways
- Evaluate businesses based on their earnings power, competitive position, and long-term prospects -- not the daily fluctuations of the stock price.
- The stock market offers prices, but you decide value. A price drop doesn't mean the business is worse; it may mean the market is emotional.
- Think of buying a stock as buying a piece of a real business. Would you buy this entire business at the current market valuation?
Example
If a company's earnings and competitive position remain strong but the stock drops 20% due to market panic, that's an opportunity -- not a reason to sell.
Investment Wisdom
"The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient."
-- Warren Buffett
"Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful."
-- Warren Buffett
"Price is what you pay. Value is what you get."
-- Warren Buffett
"In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine."
-- Benjamin Graham
"The four most dangerous words in investing are: This time it's different."
-- Sir John Templeton
Recommended Reading
The Intelligent Investor
Benjamin Graham
The definitive guide to value investing and the margin of safety concept.
Security Analysis
Benjamin Graham & David Dodd
The original framework for analyzing financial statements and valuing securities.
Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits
Philip Fisher
How to evaluate a company's management quality and growth potential.
One Up on Wall Street
Peter Lynch
Practical strategies for finding great stocks in everyday life.
The Little Book That Beats the Market
Joel Greenblatt
A simple formula combining quality and value metrics for stock selection.