By investment masters class
“The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything.” Theodore Roosevelt
“I have a criterion that I can use to identify my mistakes; the behaviour of the market” George Soros
“We all know when we are wrong. The market will tell the speculator when he is wrong, because he is losing money. When he first realises he is wrong is the time to clear out, take his losses, try to keep smiling, study the record to determine the cause of his error, and await the next big opportunity. It is the net result over a period of time in which he is interested” Jessie Livermore
“With the good men, you can see the learning juices churning around every mistake. You learn from mistakes. When I look back, my life seems to be an endless chain of mistakes” Adam Smith, The Money Game
[drizzle]“A man who has committed a mistake and doesn’t correct it, is committing another mistake” Confucius
“In business or out of it, there’s nothing unusual or shameful about making a mistake – once. But… to stumble twice against the same stone is a proverbial disgrace.” J Paul Getty
“Everyone makes mistakes” Warren Buffett
“I am a professional mistake maker. One third of my trades are probably wrong” Ray Dalio
“The only way to avoid mistakes is not to invest — which is the biggest mistake of all” John Templeton
“You never get totally over making silly mistakes” Charlie Munger
"While we will inevitably make some mistakes, we are determined to learn from each one" Seth Klarman
"Our Vice Chairman, Charlie Munger, has always emphasized the study of mistakes rather than successes, both in business and other aspects of life." Warren Buffett
"It is mistakes that are more noteworthy. Each brought its own new lesson" Phil Fisher
"By properly handling the earnings shortfalls, unexpected competitive developments, or adverse market performance, you will enhance your reputation. Avoiding or denying your mistakes is a sign of weakness in your character" Leon Cooperman
“To others, being wrong is a source of shame; to me, recognizing my mistakes is a source of pride. Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes” George Soros
“In investing it is never wrong to change your mind. It is only wrong to change your mind and do nothing about it” Seth Klarman
"There's an old saying in the investment game: "It's okay to be wrong: it's not okay to stay wrong" Scott Fearon
“Quickly identify mistakes and take action.” Charlie Munger
"Recognize a mistake early, and take immediate action" Roy Neuberger
"If you make a mistake, sell as fast as you can" Li Lu
“If you have made a mistake, deal with the mistake, don’t compound it” Michael Steinhardt
"I learned that there is an incredible beauty to mistakes, because embedded in each mistake is a puzzle, and a gem that I could get if I solved it, i.e a principle that I could use to reduce my mistakes in the future" Ray Dalio
“There is a very good investor I speak to frequently who said “All I bring to the party is twenty-eight years of mistakes”. I really believe he is right.” Michael Steinhardt
“It is really useful to be reminded of your errors. I think we’re [Warren Buffett and I] pretty good at that. We do kind of mentally rub our own noses in our own mistakes. And that is a very good mental habit.” Charlie Munger
“I don’t think anybody can do this for a career without having made some important mistakes. You can’t win all the time” Michael Steinhardt
“When something goes wrong, I like to think about the bad decisions and learn from them so that hopefully I don’t repeat the same mistake” David Einhorn
“Part of what you must learn is how to handle mistakes and new facts that change the odds. Life, in part, is like a poker game, wherein you have to learn to quit sometimes when holding a much–loved hand.” Charlie Munger
“No investment philosophy, unless it is just a carbon copy of someone else’s approach, develops in its complete form in any one day or year. In my own case, it grew over a considerable period of time, partly as a result of what perhaps may be called logical reasoning, and partly from observing the successes and failure of others, but much of it through the more painful method of learning from my own mistakes” Phil Fisher
“While most others seem to believe that mistakes are bad things, I believe mistakes are good things because I believe that most learning comes via making mistakes and reflecting on them” Ray Dalio
“I want to be able to explain my mistakes. This means I do only things I completely understand” Warren Buffett
"I have long since learned, as all should learn, not to make excuses when wrong. Just admit it and try to profit from it" Jessie Livermore
“I’m only rich because I know when I’m wrong” George Soros
".. one other thing that is absolutely critical: You have to be willing to make mistakes regularly: there is nothing wrong with it" Bruce Kovner
“There’s no way that you can live an adequate life without many mistakes. In fact, one trick in life is to get so you can handle mistakes. Failure to handle psychological denial is a common way for people to go broke.” Charlie Munger
"Great investors become great by objectively examining their mistakes and weaknesses and consciously reflecting on them" Christopher Pavese
"Even the best of speculators must be prepared to be wrong in a certain percentage of his operations. In such cases he must be able to strike his tent on the instant and conduct a swift, skillful, and silent retreat" Bernard Baruch
".. you have got to make decisions even though you know you may be wrong. You can't avoid being wrong, but by being aware of the uncertainties, you're more likely to correct your mistakes than the traditional investor" George Soros
“Replaying losses in your head is the only way you learn from your mistakes.” David Tepper
"We are going to make mistakes" Bill Ackman
"We do post-mortems on all of our positions -as well as regular position reviews of what we own - to constantly assess what we got right and what we didn't. That matters because we want to learn from mistakes even if the investment outcome turned out fine because we were lucky. Luck is not a sustainable way to make money as an investor. Avoiding mistakes that you've made before is" Shawn Kravetz
"It is not a crime to make a mistake in the investment business, but you have to recognize your mistakes early and take decisive action to reverse the decision" Pierre Lagrange
"We learn by trial and error, not by trial and rightness" Joe Ross
"We work hard to create an environment where mistakes aren't swept under the rug but are surfaced and examined right away. Part of working as a team is trying to help each other, not tear each other down when things go wrong. Address the issue, learn from it and move on" John Fox
"This is a very stressful business. We are all human, and we all make mistakes. How one responds to those mistakes and whether someone can keep a level head and make thoughtful decision is critical. Conversely, how does one respond to a few big wins? With some folks, early success leads to inflated confidence that may slow the recognition of a mistake." Lee Ainslie
"Every great money manager I've ever met, all they want to talk about it their mistakes. There's a great humility there" Stanley Druckenmiller
"I usually prefer talking more about the things I have gotten wrong, because I learned from them" Jim Rogers
"When I am wrong, the only instinct I have is to get out. If I was thinking one way and now I can see it was a mistake, then I am probably not the only person in shock, so I better be the first one to sell. I don't care what the price is. In this game, you have an option to keep 20% of your P&L this year, but you want to own the serial option of being able to do that every year. You can't be blowing up" Michael Platt
"I have also made some bad investments. There is no question that you are going to make mistakes in your life. I've made a lot, and I'm going to make more. You just have to make sure your blunders are never fatal, and you don't want to make them on the really big decisions. For example, choosing the person you are going to marry. I may try to minimise my errors, but I'm not one to dwell on them. It isn't worth it. You have to put mistakes behind you and not look back. Tomorrow is another day. Just go on to the next thing and strive to do your best." Warren Buffett
"I think one of my strengths is that I view anything that has happened up to the present point in time as history. I really don’t care about the mistake I made three seconds ago in the market. What I care about is what I am going to do from the next moment on. I try to avoid any emotional attachment to the market. I avoid letting my trading opinions be influenced by comments I may have made on the record about a market." Paul Tudor Jones
“Since actual perfection and 100% satisfaction with a position are impossible, we must learn from results and not dwell on past outcomes, either good or bad. Moving forward, even from large errors, is required.” Paul Singer
"I began a habit I was never to forsake - of analyzing my losses to determine where I had made my mistakes." Bernard Baruch
"The people I have seen succeed in this business have stuck to it and have been obsessive about learning from their mistakes" Matthew McLennan
"I've made so many mistakes I can't even think about it" Barry Rosenstein
"All investors make mistakes (even the great ones), but what separates the great ones from the rest is the ability to learn from those mistakes and change their behaviour" Mark Yusko
"Mistakes are the best teachers. One does not learn from success. It is desirable to learn vicariously from other people's failures, but it gets much more firmly seared in when they are your own." Mohnish Pabrai
".. you cannot live life without making a mistake. Every time I make a mistake I learn something" Li Lu
"One learns the most from mistakes, not successes" Paul Tudor Jones
"It's very very helpful to have mistakes that you notice. I would value them. The natural tendency when you make a mistake is to forget it as quickly as possible. What you should do is do the opposite. You should study it. The best mistakes are the ones you can practice theoretically. But the ones you really really learn are the ones you feel in your stomach or your wallet, or some combination of the two." Bill Ackman
"We lose lots of money on hundred of trades each day. We want to prevent losses that arise from making the same mistake twice" Ken Griffin
"We actually believe an ability to identify mistakes early and act on them is as or even more important in a portfolio than being right in the first place" Eric Marshall
"I am wrong a lot. While the analogy may be pushing it, you can think of a painter painting many brush strokes. He can be wrong a lot. No one brush stroke is right or wrong. We are constantly painting a picture" Bruce Kovner
"I have lost enough money being wrong that I have gotten better at it I guess. If I've gotten better at it, it's because I've made enough mistakes" Jim Rogers
"The times I normally learn my biggest lessons are when we lose money. When we make money, we don't learn much. I don't like to learn lessons after spending $55m. I'd much rather learn lessons after spending $15 on a book. It's a very expensive lesson. I don't think I will be forgetting it anytime soon" Mohnish Pabrai
“When we make mistakes, we always try to do postmortems.” Lou Simpson
"One way to improve investment results – which we try hard to apply at Oaktree – is to think about what “today’s mistake” might be and try to avoid it" Howard Marks
"Pain plus reflection equals progress. We must admit that we were wrong in orders to learn from our mistakes." Christopher Parvese
"The big difference between those who are successful and those who are not is that successful people learn from their mistakes and the mistakes of others" Sir John Templeton
"Each mistake that I make, and there are probably a huge number of mistakes in the future, but each mistake is an opportunity to learn. I look very carefully at the mistakes and say, why did this happen; are there lessons here that can help in the future? It's best to learn from other people's mistakes because they are a lot cheaper. But still, your own mistakes hit home the most and one is likely to learn the most from them" Mohnish Pabrai
“If you’re willing to fail, not every ideas is going to work, and you allow people to fail, and you may learn something in the failing, I think that is a good strategy. If you’re not innovating you’re dying. We’re always thinking of new ways to attack the problems we deal with on a daily basis” Steve Cohen
"You need to learn from your failures and mistakes and I have had many" Marc Cohodes
“It’s very difficult in the investment business to avoid mistakes. You are going to make mistakes. The key is to keep learning and getting better and over time even with a one third error rate you will end up with a better than average record if you keep at it” Mohnish Pabrai
"We’re going to make mistakes. Believe me, we’ve made a lot of mistakes.... I don’t know if there’s any one biggest mistake. We’ve had financial mistakes. We’ve had companies that didn’t work out, such as TXU and Samson, or Regal Cinemas a long time ago. But you learn from those mistakes. You hope you never do them again; shame on us if we do." Henry Kravis
"We realise that from time to time we will make mistakes. If we never made a mistake, we should properly be criticised for being too conservative. To make money one must take some risks" Ed Wachenheim
"I have always believed that the chief difference between a fool and a wise man is that the wise man learns from his mistakes, while the fool never does. The corollary of this is that it behooved me to go over my mistakes pretty carefully and not to repeat them again" Phil Fisher
"My techniques have changed from time to time as I learned from events and mistakes. Anyone can make a mistake - the important thing is to recognise an error in judgement as quickly as possible and do something about it" Roy Neuberger
"When my efforts resulted in failure, I did everything possible to insure that my mistakes were not repeated" J Paul Getty
"Turn each mistake into a learning experience. Determine exactly what went wrong and how you can avoid the same mistake in the future" Sir John Templeton
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