Barry Ritholtz, The Big Picture, interviews Peter Lynch who he calls the Greatest of All Time investor, here…
“At home in 1989, his daughter Annie answered the phone and said, “Dad, there’s a Mr. Buffett on the phone.” Lynch assumed it was one of his colleagues playing a joke. He answers to suddenly hear that familiar twang, “This is Warren Buffett from Omaha, I just read your book, its great, there is a wonderful quote in here, my annual report is due in three weeks, can I use it?” all in “7 seconds.” The quote Buffett wanted to borrow was “Getting rid of your great companies and holding onto your losers is like watering the weeds and cutting the flowers.” Buffett charmed Lynch by adding “If you ever come to Nebraska and don’t visit me in Omaha, your name will be mud all over Nebraska.””
And this…
”Predictions: They are useless. “I have no idea what’s going to happen to interest rates, inflation or whether the market’s going up or down. And basically, if you are tying your portfolio to predicting how the market is going to go or how the economy is going to go, how can anyone manage into that approach?””
I may have to pull “One Up On Wall Street” down from my book shelf and read it again…
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